AMERICAN  STATESMEN 


Second    Series 


1 


REESE  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  ®F  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


(EUtoartr 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE.  In  American  Statesmen, 
Second  Series.  With  portrait.  i2mo,  $1.25,  net. 
Postage  extra. 

AMERICAN  TARIFF  CONTROVERSIES  IN 
THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  In  two  vol 
umes.  Large  crown  8vo,  $5.00,  net.  Postpaid, 
*S-37. 

A  HISTORY  OF'THE  PRESIDENCY.  Large 
crown  8vo,  $2.50. 

HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


AMERICAN  STATESMEN 
SECOND   SERIES 


JAMES  GILLESPIE 
ELAINE 


BY 


EDWARD   STANWOOD 

LITT.  D.  (BOWDOIN) 


BOSTON   AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON,   MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 


1905 


COPYRIGHT,    1905,   BY   EDWARD   STANWOOD 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  October,  IQOJ 


CONTENTS 

I.  INTRODUCTORY 1 

II.  LINEAGE,  EDUCATION,  AND  EARLY  MAN 
HOOD    6 

III.  EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER  ...  29 

IV.  Six  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS 61 

V.  SPEAKER 105 

VI.  MINORITY    LEADER  —  THE  MULLIGAN  » 

LETTERS 130 

VII.  THE  CHECK  IN  1876  — SENATOR      .     .  177 

VIII.  IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET 216 

IX.  CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY     .     .  258 

X.  AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE   ....  296 

XI.  THE  LAST  YEARS 334 

XII.  THE  MAN  AND  THE  STATESMAN  .     .     .  349 

INDEX                                                         .  367 


Of  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


JAMES   G.   ELAINE 


INTRODUCTORY 

No  man  who  has  borne  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  political  history  of  the  United  States  had  a 
personality  more  interesting  than  that  of  James  G. 
Elaine.  He  possessed  all  the  qualities  that  draw 
men  to  a  political  leader:  a  keen,  active  mind, 
well-trained  by  early  education  and  ripened  by 
long  experience;  a  strong  and  comprehensive 
grasp  of  public  questions;  unwavering  devotion 
to  principles  espoused  in  boyhood  and  held  to  the 
last ;  great  skill  in  the  selection  of  points  of  attack 
and  defence  in  political  controversy,  and  in  the 
management  of  a  canvass ;  remarkable  facility  in 
putting  in  popular  form  his  arguments  upon  a 
question  at  issue,  supplemented  by  extraordinary 
readiness  in  off-hand  debate. 

The  traits  enumerated  excite  admiration  for 
him  who  possesses  them,  and  inspire  confidence 
in  him.  They  do  not  account  for  the  intense  devo 
tion  of  Mr.  Elaine's  supporters,  not  merely  to  the 
cause  which  he  might  be  upholding,  nor  even  to 
his  political  and  personal  fortunes,  but  to  the 


2  JAMES  G.  BLAINE 

man  himself.  There  have  been  two  or  three  men 
in  the  higher  ranks  of  American  politics  who  have 
won  the  affection  as  well  as  the  admiration  of  a 
vast  army  of  followers,  but  surely  no  one  to  a 
greater  degree  or  in  larger  numbers  than  Mr. 
Elaine.  His  fine  bodily  presence,  his  charming 
personal  manners,  his  marvellous  memory  of 
names  and  faces,  and  his  power  to  make  friends 
of  almost  all  whom  he  met,  —  even  those  who 
disagreed  with  him  radically,  —  these  things  may 
be  assigned  as  a  sufficient  explanation  of  his  won 
derful  popularity  with  his  close  associates;  and 
this  personal  magnetism  was  communicated  indi 
rectly  by  a  force  and  through  a  medium  which 
students  of  psychology  must  explain,  to  men  who 
never  met,  who  never  even  saw  him.  Moreover, 
there  was  a  dash  and  a  fire  in  his  bearing  and  in 
his  conduct  of  a  controversy  that  captivated  his 
countrymen,  and  that  gave  appropriateness  to 
the  designation  "a  plumed  knight." 

It  may  be  questioned  if  the  career  of  any 
American  public  man  is  more  worthy  than  his  to 
be  studied,  either  for  the  bare  interest  of  the  nar 
rative  or  for  the  light  which  the  study  may  cast 
upon  the  political  life  of  the  time.  It  was  a  career 
of  singular  contrasts,  —  of  brilliant  successes,  and 
of  failures  which  were  almost  as  striking  because 
they  came  so  near  to  success;  of  extraordinary 
popularity,  and  of  opposition  both  in  kind  and 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

in  degree  such  as  no  other  public  man  in  this 
country  has  encountered.  It  was  a  career  which 
is  aptly  and  truly  described  by  the  word  dra 
matic.  Consider  the  many  and  startling  fluctua 
tions  in  his  fortunes,  the  sudden  changes  pro 
duced  by  occurrences  seemingly  trivial,  and  the 
numerous  occasions  in  his  life  when  he  appeared 
as  the  central  figure  in  a  scene  which  the  whole 
country  watched  with  breathless  attention,  and 
one  is  reminded  irresistibly  of  the  development  of 
the  plot  of  a  powerful  drama.  Hostile  or  super 
ficial  critics  might  plausibly  add  to  the  many 
accusations  against  him,  a  charge  that  these  inci 
dents,  some  of  them  almost  sensational  in  their 
character,  were  carefully  planned  by  him  and 
studied  in  advance,  were  it  not  true  that  each  one 
of  them  was  a  result  of  occurrences  that  could  not 
have  been  anticipated  long  enough  before  the 
scene  itself  to  enable  the  most  ingenious  play 
wright  to  contrive  it. 

To  the  student  of  political  history  the  career  of 
Mr.  Blaine  offers  many  interesting  problems, 
some  of  which  must  be  left  for  the  historians 
of  another  generation.  That  which  will  engage 
the  most  attention  is  the  question  as  to  the  truth 
or  falsity  of  the  charges  against  his  personal 
character  which  formed  the  basis  of  implacable 
hostility  to  him  on  the  part  of  many  estimable 
and  high-minded  men.  It  is  a  question  upon 


4  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

which  full  agreement  is  never  reached  in  the 
case  of  any  man  who  has  been  the  object  of 
violent  controversy,  because  it  is  difficult  to 
approach  the  subject  without  a  strong  prejudice 
on  one  side  or  the  other.  The  opinion  of  the 
present  writer  will  undoubtedly  be  regarded  as 
too  much  biassed  by  personal  friendship  to  be 
accepted.  That,  however,  is  not  a  sufficient  rea 
son  why  the  opinion  should  be  withheld.  It  is, 
that  by  exaggeration,  distortion,  and  misplace 
ment  of  facts,  one  series  of  acts,  in  which  Mr. 
Elaine  was  not  wholly  free  from  blame,  was 
made  to  seem  the  conduct  of  a  person  destitute 
of  moral  character;  and  thereafter,  upon  the 
principle  ab  uno  disce  omnes,  every  subsequent 
act  was  interpreted  as  springing  from  the  base 
motives  which  alone  such  a  person  could  harbor. 
On  the  contrary,  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
men  who  knew  him,  and  hundreds  at  least  who 
knew  him  intimately,  are  sure  that  the  judgment 
is  harsh  and  untrue,  that  throughout  his  career 
he  was  actuated  by  high  motives,  that  he  was 
inspired  by  a  lofty  patriotism,  and  that  both  in 
his  public  and  his  private  life  he  was  obedient 
to  the  promptings  of  a  sensitive  conscience. 

The  grievous  opposition  which  he  met  in  con 
sequence  of  the  misconception  of  his  character 
by  a  small  minority  of  his  own  party  was  not  the 
sole  cause,  but  it  was  one  of  the  causes,  of  his 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

defeat  in  the  one  contest  that  would  probably 
have  enabled  an  unprejudiced  biographer,  could 
such  be  found,  to  pass  a  final  and  conclusive 
judgment  upon  his  quality  as  a  man  and  as  a 
statesman.  Not  that  it  is  necessary  that  every 
politician  shall  have  filled  the  office  of  President 
before  one  can  know  what  manner  of  man  he  is. 
But  Mr.  Blaine  was  so  great  a  man,  so  prominent 
as  a  leader,  so  prolific  of  ideas,  so  broad-minded 
and  far-seeing,  that  no  place  except  the  highest 
offered  an  opportunity  for  the  free  play  of  all  his 
powers.  Men  may  differ,  they  do  differ,  upon  the 
questions  whether  his  ideas  were  wise,  whether 
his  purposes  were  expedient,  whether  his  methods 
were  safe;  but  millions  of  his  countrymen  regret 
that  he  was  not  allowed  the  opportunity  to  prove 
that  their  judgment  upon  him  was  correct. 


II 

LINEAGE,  EDUCATION,   AND    EARLY 
MANHOOD 

JAMES  GILLESPIE  ELAINE  was  born  at  West 
Brownsville,  Washington  County,  Pennsylvania, 
on  Sunday  morning,  January  31,  1830.  He  was 
the  second  son  of  Maria  Louise  (Gillespie),  and 
Ephraim  Lyon  Elaine,  —  one  of  a  numerous 
family  of  sons  and  daughters,  some  of  whom  died 
in  infancy. 

His  ancestors  on  both  his  father's  and  his 
mother's  side  came  to  this  country  from  Ireland. 
His  great-great-grandfather,  James  Elaine,  one 
of  the  sturdy  Presbyterian  Scotch-Irish  race, 
emigrated  from  Londonderry  in  1745,  and  set 
tled  first  at  Donegal,  in  Westmoreland  County. 
He  afterward  removed  to  Toboyne,  then  in 
Cumberland,  now  in  Perry  County,  where  he 
had  a  fine  estate  on  the  banks  of  the  Juniata. 

Ephraim,  the  eldest  of  his  nine  children,  was 
born  in  1741,  before  the  removal  to  America.  In 
his  early  manhood  he  served  in  Pontiac's  war. 
In  1771  he  became  sheriff  of  Cumberland 
County.  When  the  relations  between  England 
and  its  colonies  warned  the  people  to  prepare  for 


EARLY   MANHOOD  7 

defence,  Ephraim  Elaine,  as  well  as  his  father, 
was  strongly  on  the  side  of  the  colonists.  He  was, 
in  December,  1775,  designated  as  colonel  of  a 
battalion  of  Cumberland  County  militia.  But  his 
business  ability,  which  had  already  made  him 
one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in  western  Pennsyl 
vania,  led  to  his  appointment  successively  as 
commissary  of  provisions,  deputy  commissary 
general,  and  finally,  on  the  direct  recommenda 
tion  of  General  Washington,  commissary  general 
of  purchases  for  the  northern  department.  He 
held  this  position  until  the  end  of  the  war.  His 
services  were  of  incalculable  value  to  the  cause 
of  independence.  For  a  great  part  of  the  time 
his  duties  included  the  raising  of  money  to  pay 
for  the  goods  which  nominally  it  was  his  business 
only  to  buy.  He  advanced  largely  from  his  own 
means  to  promote  the  cause.  To  his  energy  and 
persuasive  power  Washington's  army  owed  it 
that  the  distress  at  Valley  Forge  was  not  even 
greater  than  it  was. 

Colonel  Elaine  removed  to  Carlisle  in  1764, 
and  in  June  of  the  next  year  married  Rebecca 
Galbraith,  who  was  like  himself  of  Scotch-Irish 
descent.  Their  married  life  extended  over  thirty- 
one  years.  Two  years  after  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Elaine  in  1795,  he  married  a  second  wife,  a  widow, 
Mrs.  Duncan,  who  lived  until  1850.  Colonel 
Elaine  himself  died  in  1804. 


10  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

hill,"  in  Brownsville,  and  the  young  couple  took 
up  their  residence  at  Sewickley.  Mrs.  Elaine 
lived  until  her  distinguished  son  had  completed 
his  first  term  as  Speaker  of  the  United  States 
House  of  Representatives.  Between  the  two 
there  always  subsisted  the  tenderest  relations  of 
mutual  love  and  respect.  The  mother  was  a 
devout  Catholic,  but  her  character  seems  to  have 
been  devoid  of  intolerance  toward  those  of  an 
other  faith.  Indeed,  contrary  to  the  usual  prac 
tice  in  the  case  of  the  marriage  of  a  Catholic  and 
a  Protestant,  all  her  children  were  brought  up  in 
the  Presbyterian  faith.  She  recommended  her 
own  religion  by  her  large-hearted  charitableness 
and  kindness.  Long  after  her  death  Mr.  Elaine 
wrote  of  her  to  a  friend :  "  It  seems  to  me  here  and 
now  that  I  would  give  worlds  could  I  have  had  a 
single  parting  word.  The  last  message  my 
mother  left  in  her  conscious  moments  was  to  me. 
The  last  word  she  ever  uttered  audibly  was  my 
name,  after  her  intellect  was  clouded  with  the 
shadow  of  the  dark  valley.  She  was  the  most 
loving,  devoted,  and  affectionate  of  mothers, 
and  my  love  for  her  was  very  great."  1 

Ephraim  Elaine  removed  from  Sewickley  to 
Brownsville  not  long  before  the  birth  of  his  son 
James,  and  there  the  boyhood  of  the  future 
statesman  was  passed.  Brownsville  was  situated 

1  Biography  of  James  G.  Elaine,  by  Gail  Hamilton,  p.  235. 


EARLY   MANHOOD  11 

on  both  banks  of  the  Monongahela  River.  At 
that  time  Washington  County,  already  reduced 
from  its  original  proportions,1  was  still  much 
larger  than  it  is  now.  The  home  of  the  Blaines 
was  in  West  Brownsville,  which  is  still  in  Wash 
ington  County,  whereas  Brownsville  proper  is 
in  Fayette  County.  Brownsville,  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Monongahela,  was  an  important  station 
on  the  Cumberland  road,  the  national  turnpike 
between  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  rivers,  the 
subject  of  many  a  Congressional  debate  on  the 
constitutionality  of  internal  improvements,  and 
the  cause  of  the  most  voluminous  veto  message 
ever  written  by  a  president  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  years  between  1830  and  1840,  when  the 
western  country  was  filling  up  rapidly,  and  when 
as  yet  the  railway  did  not  penetrate  that  region, 
the  national  road  was  the  busiest  of  thorough 
fares.  Tradition  tells  of  twenty-five  loaded 
coaches  starting  at  the  same  time  from  each  end 
of  the  road,  Cumberland  on  the  east  and  Wheel 
ing  on  the  west.  It  was  virtually  the  only  line  of 
communication  from  the  seaboard  to  the  Ohio 
River,  upon  which  passengers  and  freight  were 
transported  to  southern  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Tennes 
see,  and  all  the  middle  west.  Thus,  although 

1  "  The  county  of  Washington,  as  it  anciently  was,  taking 
in  all  the  state  south  and  west  of  the  Monongahela."  — Letter 
from  Mr.  Blaine  to  John  D.  McKennan,  Sept.  5,  1881. 


12  JAMES    G.    BLAINE 

Brownsville  was  a  country  town,  its  young  in 
habitants  had  frequent  opportunities  to  see  the 
great  men  of  the  land  as  the  coaches  conveying 
them  to  and  from  the  capital  stopped  for  change 
of  horses  and  for  meals.  Jackson,  Clay,  and 
Polk  were  among  those  who  made  use  of  the 
national  road  for  this  journey.  It  is  not  only  pos 
sible  but  probable  that  youthful  glimpses  of  these 
and  other  great  men  may  have  turned  the 
thoughts  of  the  boy  Elaine  toward  a  political 
career. 

When  James  was  about  ten  years  old  he  made 
a  long  visit  to  his  cousins  in  Lancaster,  Ohio. 
The  wife  of  Thomas  Ewing  was  a  cousin  of  his 
mother,  and  during  nearly  a  year,  in  1839  and 
1840,  he  lived  in  the  Ewing  home,  and,  with  two 
of  his  cousins,  was  under  the  instruction,  in  pre 
paration  for  college,  of  a  Mr.  Lyons,  an  uncle  of 
Lord  Lyons,  afterward  English  minister  at 
Washington.  When  Mr.  Ewing,  in  1841,  jour 
neyed  from  Lancaster  to  Washington  to  take  the 
Treasury  portfolio,  in  the  cabinet  of  General 
Harrison,  he  took  his  son  Thomas  with  him,  and 
as  they  passed  through  Brownsville  over  the 
Cumberland  road,  left  him  there  to  continue  his 
preparatory  studies  for  college  with  young 
Blaine. 

In  1842  Ephraim  Blaine  was  elected  protho- 
notary  of  Washington  County,  then  an  office  of 


EARLY   MANHOOD  13 

not  a  little  importance.  He  was  an  earnest  Whig 
and  a  strong  partisan  of  Henry  Clay.  The  can 
vass  that  year  was  exceedingly  warm.  General 
Harrison  was  dead,  and  the  Whigs  in  Congress 
were  engaged  in  their  struggle  with  Tyler. 
Neither  party  neglected,  in  the  local  elections, 
any  weapon  that  gave  promise  of  helping  them  to 
victory.  The  Democrats  bethought  themselves 
of  Mr.  Elaine's  Roman  Catholic  wife,  and  they 
brought  against  him,  as  political  enemies  after 
ward  brought  against  his  son,  the  accusation  that 
he  himself  was  a  Catholic.  Neither  father  nor  son 
ever  repudiated  the  charge  in  such  a  way  as  to 
imply  that  he  regarded  it  as  injurious.1  Ephraim 
Elaine's  method  was  characteristic.  He  called 
upon  his  friend,  Father  Murphy,  the  priest  in 

1  In  a  private  letter,  dated  in  1876,  James  G.  Elaine  wrote: 
"  My  ancestors  on  my  father's  side  were,  as  you  know,  always 
identified  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  they  were  promi 
nent  and  honored  in  the  old  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  But  I 
will  never  consent  to  make  any  public  declaration  on  the 
subject,  and  for  two  reasons :  First,  because  I  abhor  the  intro 
duction  of  anything  that  looks  like  a  religious  test  or  qualifica 
tion  for  office  in'  a  republic  where  perfect  freedom  of  con 
science  is  the  birthright  of  every  citizen;  and,  second,  because 
my  mother  was  a  devoted  Catholic.  I  would  not  for  a  thou 
sand  presidencies  speak  a  disrespectful  word  of  my  mother's 
religion,  and  no  pressure  will  draw  me  into  any  avowal  of 
hostility  or  unfriendliness  to  Catholics,  though  I  have  never 
received,  and  do  not  expect,  any  political  support  from  them." 
—  Quoted  in  James  G.  Elaine,  by  Charles  Wolcott  Balestier, 
p.  6. 


14  JAMES    G.    ELAINE 

charge  of  the  church  which  his  wife  attended, 
and  obtained  from  him  this  novel  certificate, 
which  settled  the  question,  and  contributed  a 
touch  of  humor  to  the  canvass,  whether  or  not 
it  helped  Mr.  Blaine  at  the  polls :  — 

"  This  is  to  certify  that  Ephraim  L.  Blaine  is 
not  now  and  never  was  a  member  of  the  Catholic 
church ;  and  furthermore,  in  my  opinion  he  is  not 
fit  to  be  a  member  of  any  church." 

Upon  being  elected  prothonotary  Ephraim 
Blaine  removed  once  more  to  Washington,  the 
county  seat,  also  a  station  on  the  Cumberland 
road.  Both  the  county  and  the  town  were  the 
first  to  bear  the  name  of  the  Father  of  his  Coun 
try,  —  with  good  reason,  too,  for  Washington 
had  been  the  owner  of  a  large  tract  of  land  in  this 
region,  granted  to  him  for  his  public  services,  and 
had  given  to  Washington  College,  named  in  his 
honor,  a  part  of  the  land  on  which  the  college 
buildings  stand. 

Young  Blaine  was  a  bright  and  precocious 
scholar.  He  entered  Washington  College  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  the  youngest  member  of  a  class 
that  numbered  thirty-three,  and  was  graduated 
in  due  course  four  years  later,  in  1847.  The  first 
honors  of  the  class  were  divided  among  three 
members,  of  whom  Blaine  was  one.  When  he  was 
teaching  in  Kentucky  the  next  year  he  sent  a 
catalogue  of  the  institution  to  one  of  his  class- 


EARLY  MANHOOD  15 

mates,  and  in  a  long  letter  to  him  explained  how 
it  came  about  that  in  the  list  of  teachers  he  was 
credited  with  having  been  at  the  head  of  his  col 
lege  class.  It  was  inserted,  he  said,  without  his 
knowledge,  and  if  he  had  been  aware  that  it  was 
to  be  placed  there  he  "  would  have  objected  to  it, 
for  in  fact  it  is  not  strictly  true.  I  no  more  gradu 
ated  No.  1  than  did  Tom  Porter  or  John  Hervey, 
nor  did  they  any  more  than  I,  so  that  in  that  sense 
I  might  be  said  to  have  graduated  No.  1,  for  no 
body  was  above  me."  Having  explained  how  it 
happened,  he  concluded  with  the  following  sen 
tences,  in  which  is  introduced  a  pretty  piece  of 
slang :  "  I  have  been  thus  tedious  in  my  explana 
tion  of  this  matter,  because  I  did  not  wish  you 
to  think  that  I  was  fool  enough  to  have  such  a 
thing  printed  concerning  myself.  My  classmates 
who  may  happen  to  see  it  will  think  that  I  am 
taking  a  great  stiff  out  here  in  Kentucky,  just 
because  I  happened  to  get  a  share  of  the  first 
honor." 

The  requirements  of  admission  to  college  at  the 
present  day  are  so  much  more  severe  than  they 
were  sixty  years  ago,  that  the  average  age  of  those 
who  now  enter  such  institutions  is  greater  than 
that  at  which  Mr.  Blaine  ended  his  course.  It 
might  be  thought  to  be  a  necessary  consequence 
of  this  fact  that  his  classical  training  did  not 
much  exceed  that  which  is  now  given  in  the  pre- 


16  JAMES   G.    ELAINE 

paratory  schools.  But  those  who  knew  him  in 
after  life  are  aware  how  false  a  conclusion  this 
would  be.  His  mind  had  received  the  discipline 
which  is  characteristic  of  those  who  have  had  the 
benefit  of  the  old-fashioned  classical  curriculum, 
and  who  have  profited  by  their  opportunities. 
His  spoken  and  written  language,  in  his  early 
manhood,  even  in  his  familiar  conversation  and 
in  unstudied  correspondence,  was  that  of  a 
scholar,  —  not  merely  correct  and  devoid  of  the 
gaucherie  of  the  half  taught,  but  elegant  and 
precise,  clear  and  terse.  His  familiarity  with  the 
works  of  the  ancient  classical  writers  seems  to 
have  had  an  important  influence  upon  his  own 
literary  style,  which  was  not  an  imitation  of  that 
of  any  other,  but  is  suggestive  of  having  been 
formed  on  the  best  models.  His  acquaintance 
with  those  works  enabled  him  on  occasion  to 
enrich  his  own  thoughts  and  words  with  apposite 
references  to  them,  and  with  apt  quotations.  He 
had,  too,  acquired  a  taste  for  the  best  literature 
of  all  times,  which  he  never  ceased  to  gratify  by 
reading  omnivorously,  avoiding  only  that  which 
was  trashy  and  sensational.  Above  all  the  college 
had  imparted  to  him  that  thirst  for  knowledge, 
embracing  all  branches,  all  principles,  all  details, 
which  is  the  trait  of  the  true  scholar. 

Yet  as  a  college  student  Elaine  did  not  leave 
upon  his  classmates  the  impression  that  he  was 


EARLY  MANHOOD  17 

destined  for  a  great  career.  He  was  to  them  sim 
ply  a  bright  scholar,  —  one  of  three  at  the  head 
of  the  class,  as  we  have  seen,  a  youth  full  of  fun 
and  ready  to  join  in  the  harmless  pranks  of  col 
lege  life,  yet,  as  the  professor  of  languages  wrote 
to  him  at  the  end  of  his  course,  "  one  of  the  few 
who  have  passed  through  their  collegiate  course 
without  a  fault  or  a  stain."  There  was  a  debating 
society,  and  Elaine  was  a  member  of  it ;  but  he 
never  took  an  active  part  in  the  debates.  As  a 
public  man  his  personal  appearance  and  bearing 
were  most  impressive,  but  his  college  mates 
remembered  him  as  a  loose-jointed  and  awkward 
young  fellow. 

His  instructors  discerned  more  in  him  than 
was  revealed  to  his  fellow  students.  The  family 
fortunes  were  low,  and  his  father  was  unable  to 
help  him  to  the  further  education  which  he  de 
sired  —  a  preparation  for  the  bar.  He  was 
obliged  to  postpone  the  gratification  of  that  wish 
and  resort  to  teaching  for  a  time,  in  order  to  earn 
his  living  and  provide  means  for  future  study. 
With  this  in  view  he  obtained  from  the  faculty 
and  from  the  individual  members  of  it  the  recom 
mendations  which  would  enable  him  to  make  a 
start  in  life.  They  all  signed  a  statement  that 
"  during  the  whole  period  of  his  connection  with 
the  college"  he  had  been  "a  very  punctual, 
orderly,  diligent,  and  successful  student,"  and 


18  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

that  if  he  should  become  an  instructor  in  any 
institution,  "his  talents,  literary  acquirements, 
dignity,  decision,  and  prudence  will  not  fail  to 
merit  the  confidence  and  approbation  of  those 
who  may  obtain  his  services."  These  are  strong 
terms  to  be  applied  to  a  youth  who  had  not  com 
pleted  his  eighteenth  year,  but  they  were  evi 
dently  chosen  with  care,  and  as  they  are  closely 
descriptive  of  the  man  in  his  maturity,  their 
truthfulness  will  not  be  suspected.  Each  of  the 
professors  gave  young  Blaine  a  separate  recom 
mendation.  The  head  of  the  mathematics  depart 
ment  testified  to  his  "peculiar  fondness"  for 
mathematical  studies,  and  the  "clearness,  accu 
racy,  and  precision  "  of  his  demonstrations.  His 
"sound  and  thorough  English  education"  was 
attested  by  the  professor  of  English  literature. 
The  professor  of  languages,  in  the  course  of  a 
strong  and  comprehensive  certificate,  remarked: 
"Your  knowledge  of  the  languages  especially, 
being  critical  beyond  what  is  often  attained  at 
college,  fits  you  in  a  special  manner  for  the  office 
of  instructor  in  this  department." 

Provided  with  these  testimonials  to  his  fitness 
he  turned  his  face  westward  in  search  of  em 
ployment  as  a  teacher.  His  venture  into  the 
world  seems  not  to  have  had  the  full  approval  of 
his  father,  and  yet  not  to  have  encountered  seri 
ous  opposition.  In  less  than  two  months  after 


EARLY  MANHOOD  19 

graduation  he  was  on  his  way  over  the  Cumber 
land  road,  and  thence  down  the  Ohio  River. 
What  more  natural  than  that  the  young  admirer 
of  Henry  Clay  should  be  attracted  to  Lexington, 
the  home  of  the  great  Kentuckian  ?  At  all  events, 
to  Lexington  he  went,  and  made  that  place  his 
headquarters  until  he  found  occupation  as  a 
teacher.  A  fortnight  after  his  arrival  he  heard 
Clay  speak  in  the  market-place  on  the  subject  of 
the  Mexican  War.  Long  afterward  he  wrote  to  a 
friend  that  he  stood  "  close  up  to  the  great  com 
moner,"  with  note-book  and  pencil  in  hand,  and 
reported  the  speech  as  well  as  he  could.  In  the 
same  letter  he  writes  that  afterward  he  went  to 
Louisville,  Maysville,  and  Cincinnati,  "and  the 
morning  he  left  the  last-named  place,  December  4, 
he  heard  that  Robert  C.  Winthrop  was  just 
elected  speaker  of  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives.  He  immediately  notified  his 
friends  that  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  succession, 
and  in  the  incredibly  brief  space  of  twenty-two 
years  he  attained  the  place  —  a  remarkable  in 
stance  of  faith,  patience,  and  despatch  harmoni 
ously  combined."  1 

While  he  was  staying  at  Lexington  he  heard 
that  a  situation  was  vacant  in  the  Western  Mili 
tary  Institute,  at  Georgetown,  about  twelve  miles 
from  Lexington.  He  drove  to  Georgetown,  offered 
1  Gail  Hamilton's  Biography,  p.  85. 


20  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

himself  for  the  place,  was  told  that  he  should  have 
an  answer  in  a  day  or  two,  and  the  next  day 
received  a  letter  accepting  him.  He  entered  upon 
his  duties  in  January,  1848,  and  for  the  next  two 
or  three  years  taught  Latin,  Greek,  and  elemen 
tary  geometry  in  the  institute.  It  was  a  congenial 
occupation,  if  it  was  not  that  which  he  had  —  not 
definitely  —  determined  should  be  his  life-occu 
pation.  He  was  "  Professor  Blaine "  from  the 
start.  IJis  associates  in  teaching  were  interesting 
and  agreeable  men.  Three  of  them  were  gradu 
ates  of  West  Point,  and  one  was  a  graduate  of 
the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  the  model  of  that 
at  Georgetown.  In  spite  of  his  youth  he  received 
deference  from  them,  and  inspired  respect  in  the 
boys  whom  he  taught. 

The  few  glimpses  we  get  of  him  at  this  period 
of  his  life  not  only  suggest  the  future  politician; 
they  show  in  something  like  maturity  the  traits 
for  which  he  was  afterward  famous.  He  knew 
every  boy  in  school,  by  his  name.  Perhaps  there 
was  no  accomplishment  which  more  endeared 
him  to  casual  acquaintances  than  his  marvellous 
memory  of  names  and  faces,  and  his  ability  to 
recall  the  circumstances  of  the  first  meeting.  His 
reputation  in  this  respect  sometimes  led  people 
to  expect  too  much.  He  himself  related  that  he 
was  accosted  at  a  town  in  Ohio,  after  one  of  his 
meetings  in  the  travelling  canvass  of  1884,  by  a 


EARLY  MANHOOD  21 

man  who  referred  to  his  memory  for  faces,  and 
asked  if  Mr.  Elaine  remembered  him.  Evidently 
Mr.  Elaine  did  not,  but  before  his  tongue  made 
the  confession  already  apparent  on  his  face,  the 
man  said,  with  unconcealed  disappointment, 
"  Why,  I  was  in  the  crowd  at  the  station  when  you 
passed  through  here  in  1876,  and  stood  right 
before  you."  Professor  Elaine  was  a  great  favor 
ite  with  the  four  or  five  hundred  young  students 
in  the  institution,  although  he  was  an  exacting 
teacher  and  a  severe,  if  tactful,  disciplinarian. 
In  all  these  things  he  displayed  in  youth  the  traits 
of  his  mature  manhood. 

But  in  nothing  else  did  he  show  forth  the  man 
he  was  to  be  so  clearly  as  in  his  acquaintance 
with  public  affairs.  Letters  which  he  wrote  while 
at  Georgetown,  some  of  which  are  printed  in 
Gail  Hamilton's  "  Biography,"  exhibit  him  with 
political  principles  already  formed,  and  convic 
tions  already  adopted,  from  which  he  never  after 
ward  departed.  They  reveal  not  merely  an  aston 
ishingly  thorough  acquaintance  with  the  men  and 
the  events  of  the  previous  political  history  of  the 
country,  but  also  an  insight  into  the  significance 
and  probable  consequences  of  current  events 
most  remarkable  in  one  of  his  years.  Are  we 
reading  the  words  of  a  boy  under  eighteen,  and 
not  those  of  an  experienced  politician  ? 

"I  am  surprised  to  hear  that  Henry  Clay's 


22  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

speech  1  does  not  take  in  Pennsylvania;  it  was 
made  just  for  the  purpose  of  conciliating  the 
furor  of  the  North,  but  I  am  afraid  it  is  going  to 
play  the  devil  in  the  South;  it  is  tinctured  too 
much  with  Abolitionism  to  go  well  there.  Henry 
has  made  another  mistake  which  will  be  apt  to 
defeat  him  again.  .  .  .  This  state  will  be  very 
nearly  balanced  between  him  and  Taylor  when 
they  hold  their  convention  at  Frankfort  in  Feb 
ruary.  ...  If  you  [he  was  writing  to  a  Demo 
crat]  nominate  Cass,  Buchanan,  Van  Buren,  or 
any  of  those  men,  I  think  the  Whigs  stand  a  very 
good  chance."  2 

Again,  in  October,  1848,  he  wrote:  — 
"Are  you  not  perfectly  aghast  at  the  late  re 
sult  ?  [The  October  elections.]  Pennsylvania  elect 
a  Whig  governor!  The  most  astonishing  thing  I 
ever  heard  of.  I  do  not  think  the  most  sanguine 
Whig  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  thing.  It  must  be 
confessed  we  have  not  done  so  well  in  Ohio 
as  we  wish,  but  then  you  must  remember  that 
there  existed  a  good  many  elements  of  discord 
among  the  Whigs,  which  can  all  be  smoothed 
over  before  the  7th  of  November.  Besides,  Weller 

1  At  Lexington,  November  13,  1847. 

2  This  letter,  Gail  Hamilton's  Biography,  p.  93,  is  printed 
without  its  date,  but  was  evidently  written  in  December,  1847. 
In  it  he  remarks  that  he  h  is  read  President  Folk's  message 
"very  attentively,"  and  considers  it  on  the  whole  a  "clever 
document." 


EARLY  MANHOOD  23 

got  the  Free-soil  vote,  which  will  all  be  cast  for 
Van  Buren,  thereby  securing  Taylor  a  plurality. 
But  to  tell  the  truth,  I  am  very  much  afraid  we  will 
lose  Ohio,  but  then  Pennsylvania  will  more  than 
make  up." 

His  forecast  of  the  result  was  met  exactly  when 
the  election  took  place,  for  Pennsylvania  was  car 
ried  and  Ohio  was  lost  by  the  Whigs.  One  is 
reminded,  by  his  boyish  prediction,  covering 
defeat  as  well  as  victory,  of  the  prescience  with 
which  in  after  years  he  used  to  await  the  returns 
from  three  or  four  towns,  in  the  early  evening 
after  an  election  in  Maine,  and  thereupon  tele 
graph  to  the  President  a  confident  statement  of 
the  Republican  majority.  Rarely  did  the  official 
count  vary  from  his  prediction  by  more  than  a 
few  hundred  votes. 

But  at  Georgetown  he  was  merely  an  observer 
of  politics,  not  an  active  participant.  His  duties  as 
a  teacher  occupied  him  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
things  in  which  he  would  have  taken  a  deeper  in 
terest.  He  proposed  to  himself  to  begin  the  study 
of  the  law  at  Lexington,  in  the  summer  of  1849, 
but  apparently  did  not  carry  out  the  purpose. 

The  superintendent  of  the  Institute  was 
Colonel  Thornton  F.  Johnson.  Twenty  miles 
from  Georgetown,  at  Millersburg,  was  a  young 
ladies'  seminary,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
wife  of  Colonel  Johnson.  It  was  quite  natural 


24  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

that  there  should  be  a  friendly  acquaintance 
between  the  teachers  of  the  two  institutions. 
Young  Blaine  visited  Millersburg  and  met  there 
Miss  Harriet  Stanwood,  of  Augusta,  Maine,  who 
was  a  teacher  in  the  seminary,  as  was  also  her 
older  sister  Caroline.  They  were  strongly  attract 
ed  to  each  other  from  the  first  meeting,  and  after 
a  short  engagement  were  married,  on  June  30, 
1850. 

Harriet  (Stanwood)  Blaine  was  a  descendant, 
in  the  sixth  generation,  from  Philip  Stainwood, 
whose  name  first  appears  on  the  records  of- 
Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  in  1652.  Her  ances 
tors  without  a  single  exception,  both  paternal 
and  maternal,  —  Caldwells,  Appletons,  Dodgesj 
Hodgkinses,  Hoveys,  Treadwells,  Willcombs, 
and  many  others,  —  were  resident  in  Essex 
County,  Massachusetts,  long  before  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  There  is  no  trace  of  the 
admixture  of  the  blood  of  any  immigrant  more 
recent  than  the  year  1675.  One  branch  of  the 
family  removed  to  Ipswich,  in  Essex  County,  in 
1723,  and  there  Harriet  Stanwood's  father  was 
born,  in  1785.  He  removed  to  Augusta,  Maine, 
in  1822,  two  years  after  the  admission  of  the 
state  to  the  Union.  Mr.  Stanwood  was  twice 
married.  Of  his  ten  children  Harriet  was  the 
ninth,  —  the  seventh  by  his  second  wife,  and  the 
fifth  of  six  daughters. 


EARLY  MANHOOD  25 

The  married  life  of  Mr.  Blaine,  which  was 
terminated  by  his  own  death,  —  Mrs.  Blaine 
died  in  1903,  —  was  one  of  uninterrupted  har 
mony  and  delight.  No  man  ever  had  better  rea 
son  than  he  to  enjoy  his  own  family,  and  no  man 
was  ever  happier  in  the  companionship  of  wife 
and  children.  Mrs.  Blaine  was  a  woman  of 
brilliant  mind  and  of  keen  wit,  a  fitting  mate  of 
her  husband  in  mental  quality.  More  than  this, 
she  was  able  to  enter  to  the  fullest  extent  into  the 
subjects  which  interested  him.  Her  literary 
tastes  were  in  strict  agreement  with  his.  To 
gether  they  read  and  enjoyed  the  works  of  the 
great  writers  of  fiction,  poetry  and  history.  She 
not  only  sympathized  with  her  husband  in  poli 
tics,  and  shared  and  incited  his  ambitions,  but 
she  brought  so  good  a  judgment  to  the  considera 
tion  of  public  questions  that  Mr.  Blaine  habitu 
ally  talked  over  political  questions  with  her,  and 
frequently  sought  her  advice.  All  these  state 
ments  are  true  of  her  from  the  early  years  of  their 
married  life.  One  of  her  Augusta  cousins,  who 
like  the  most  of  his  family  had  been  a  Whig,  did 
not  pass  over  the  easy  path  into  the  Republican 
party,  but  continued  to  be  a  "straight  Whig." 
It  was  soon  after  the  great  religious  "  revival "  of 
1857  that  Mrs.  Blaine  who,  together  with  her 
husband,  was  a  convert  of  that  time,  remarked 
to  a  friend  that  she  was  afraid  that (naming 


26  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

her  errant  Whig  cousin)  had  fallen  from  grace. 
Her  zeal  and  earnestness  in  all  things  pertaining 
to  Mr.  Elaine  occasionally  imparted  to  her  utter 
ances  a  pungency  of  phrase  which  —  amiable 
fault  as  it  was  —  caused  some  injury  to  her  own 
popularity. 

Seven  children  were  the  issue  of  this  marriage. 
The  first-born,  Stanwood,  died  in  infancy. 
Death  did  not  again  invade  the  family  until 
1890,  when,  within  the  space  of  three  weeks, 
Walker,  the  oldest  son,  and  Alice,  the  oldest 
daughter  were  taken  away.  From  their  earliest 
years  Mr.  Blaine  was  the  friend  and  companion 
of  his  children.  His  inexhaustible  store  of  in 
formation  upon  a  thousand  subjects  was  always 
at  their  command.  He  stimulated  their  minds 
by  questions  designed  to  test  their  knowledge, 
and  to  lead  them  on  to  inquiries  which  gave 
him  the  opportunity  to  instruct  them  by  lessons 
of  their  own  seeking.  A  familiar  picture  of  him 
in  such  companionship  is  in  the  mind  of  one 
who  was  accustomed  freely  to  enter  the  Augusta 
home  unannounced;  Mr.  Blaine  and  Emmons 
stretched  at  full  length  upon  the  carpet  in  the 
library,  above  an  open  atlas  upon  which  the 
father  was  pointing  out  on  the  map  interesting 
places,  and  giving  his  young  son  of  eight  or  nine 
years  a  lesson  in  geography,  physiography,  and 
history,  all  at  once.  It  need  not  be  said  that 


EARLY  MANHOOD  27 

the  children  had  an  admiration  for  and  a  con 
fidence  in  him  that  knew  no  bounds. 

Mr.  Blaine  remained  at  the  Georgetown 
Institute  until  the  close  of  the  school  year  in  1851. 
Then,  partly  perhaps  in  consequence  of  the 
death  of  his  father,  which  took  place  in  June, 
1850,  and  partly  by  reason  of  the  retirement  of 
Colonel  Johnson  from  the  institution,  he  closed 
his  connection  with  the  school.  There  were  other 
and  weighty  reasons  for  the  change.  He  was 
already  married,  and  felt  that  it  was  time  for  him 
to  begin  the  study  of  law.  He  therefore  went  to 
Philadelphia  and  began  his  studies.  His  wife 
went,  for  the  time,  to  her  mother's  home  in 
Augusta.  In  the  summer  of  1852  he  answered 
in  person  an  advertisement  for  a  teacher  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Institute  for  the  Blind,  and  was  at 
once  accepted  in  preference  to  a  considerable 
number  of  earlier  candidates.  He  continued  to 
be  a  teacher  in  the  school  a  little  more  than  two 
years,  from  August,  1852,  until  November,  1854. 
The  arrangement  was  an  excellent  one  for  his 
purposes.  He  had  a  home  to  which  he  could  bring 
his  wife  and  his  infant  son  Stan  wood;  and  his 
duties  were  sufficiently  light,  and  his  salary  was 
large  enough  to  enable  him  to  continue  his  studies 
for  the  bar. 

As  in  Kentucky,  he  won  respect  and  esteem  as 
a  teacher  in  Philadelphia.  He  taught  mathe- 


28  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

matics  and  the  higher  branches  to  the  blind 
pupils,  and  left  behind  him  a  reputation  which 
lasted  many  a  year  as  one  who  contributed 
greatly  to  the  social  as  well  as  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  institution.  His  pupils  used  to  tell  of  the 
spirit  and  appreciation  with  which  he  and  Mrs. 
Blaine  read  aloud  to  them  from  the  works  of 
Dickens  and  from  the  humorous  writings  of  the 
time,  and  of  the  fun  which  they  had  in  the  spell 
ing-bees,  especially  when  they  tried  to  spell  the 
teacher  down. 


Ill 

EDITOR   AND   POLITICAL   LEADER 

NEAR  the  close  of  the  year  1854  there  was  an 
abrupt  change  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Blaine,  and  in 
all  his  plans  and  purposes.  His  career  as  a 
teacher  of  youth  came  to  ah  end ;  he  abandoned 
his  intention  to  become  a  lawyer;  he  laid  aside 
his  cherished  longing  to  pass  his  days  in  his 
native  Pennsylvania.  He  entered  a  new  profes 
sion  in  a  new  home,  and  took  up  an  occupation 
which  opened  before  him  an  unobstructed  path 
to  the  most  conspicuous  and  honorable  place  in 
public  affairs. 

Since  his  marriage  he  had  made  more  than 
one  visit  at  Augusta,  Maine,  the  birthplace  of  his 
wife,  where  two  of  her  sisters  still  resided  in  the 
family  homestead.  The  sad  occasion  of  one  of 
these  visits  was  the  death  of  his  firstborn,  who 
was  taken  to  Augusta  for  burial.  He  used  to  say 
afterward  that  he  was  attracted  and  charmed 
from  the  beginning  by  the  alertness  and  thrift  of 
the  New  England  people,  whom  he  was  then 
meeting  for  the  first  time,  and  that  he  contrasted 
it  not  only  with  the  indolence  and  improvidence 
which  characterized  Kentucky  in  slavery  times, 


30  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

but  also  with  the  lavishness  that  had  prevailed 
in  his  own  home  in  Pennsylvania.  In  Augusta  he 
met  and  became  acquainted  with  many  of  the 
leading  men  of  the  city,  and  made  a  deep  impres 
sion  upon  them  by  his  thorough  familiarity  with 
the  public  questions  of  the  day,  by  the  depth  and 
sincerity  of  his  convictions,  by  the  brilliancy  of 
his  conversation,  and  by  his  easy  and  distin 
guished  manners. 

Among  his  new  friends  was  Mr.  John  Dorr, 
who  for  ten  years  had  been  associated  with  the 
Hon.  Luther  Severance  in  the  conduct  of  the 
"  Kennebec  Journal,"  a  weekly  Whig  newspaper 
published  at  the  state  capital.  Mr.  Severance 
was  the  editor  of  the  paper  from  the  time  of  its 
foundation  in  1825  until  President  Taylor,  in 
1850,  appointed  him  the  first  Commissioner  of 
the  United  States  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
Meanwhile  he  had  served  frequently  in  the 
Maine  Legislature,  in  both  branches,  and  in 
Congress,  from  1843  to  1847.  He  took  a  distin 
guished  position  in  the  National  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  His  speech  against  the  Tariff  of  1846 
was  one  of  the  keenest  and  most  effective  made 
by  a  Whig  in  either  House.  His  analysis  of 
Secretary  Walker's  report,  on  which  that  act 
was  based,  and  his  skillful  use  of  statistics  in 
refutation  of  some  of  its  arguments,  won  for  him 
a  high  place  among  his  colleagues.  But,  after  all, 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    31 

it  was  as  editor  of  the  "  Kennebec  Journal "  that 
he  performed  his  greatest  and  most  lasting  work. 
During  the  middle  period  of  the  last  century 
the  country  newspaper  exerted  great  power  in  the 
formation  of  public  opinion.  Yet  even  in  the 
cities  there  was  then  nothing  that  could  properly 
be  termed  a  profession  of  journalism.  Men  be 
came  editors  by  accident,  not  by  education  and 
premeditation.  Hezekiah  Niles,  Horace  Greeley, 
James  Watson  Webb,  James  Gordon  Bennett, 
Nathan  Hale,  Joseph  T.  Buckingham,  Francis  P. 
Blair,  Thomas  Ritchie,  George  D.  Prentice, 
Thurlow  Weed,  —  not  one  of  them  came  to  his 
position  at  the  head  of  an  influential  newspaper  as 
a  result  of  preliminary  training  and  apprentice 
ship.  Many  of  them  began  life  as  printers  "at 
the  case,"  and  acquired  their  first  knowledge  of 
public  affairs,  in  large  part,  from  the  "copy" 
which  they  put  in  type,  and  studied  while  they 
worked.  In  most  cases  they  founded  each  his 
own  newspaper,  and  gained  influence  for  it  by 
the  force  and  lucidity  with  which  they  discussed 
the  political  issues  of  the  day.  In  the  country  the 
process  of  evolution  of  editors  was  quite  similar 
to  that  in  the  cities.  It  was  not  unusual  for  law 
yers  who  had  not  been  too  successful  at  the  bar 
to  become,  first  occasional  contributors  to  the 
weekly  newspaper,  and  afterward,  as  a  separa 
tion  of  business  and  literary  duties  became  neces- 


32  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

sary,  the  regular  editors  of  country  newspapers. 
They  did  not  all  turn  out  to  be  good  editors,  nor 
powerful  and  luminous  writers;  but  here  and 
there,  more  frequently  than  one  would  have 
expected,  a  real  leader  of  public  opinion  was 
developed.  His  articles  upon  the  questions  of  the 
time  would  be  widely  copied,  and  his  reputation 
would  reach  to  the  limits  of  his  state,  sometimes 
beyond  them. 

In  a  time  when  books  were  few,  when  money 
was  scarce,  when  newspapers  were  expensive, 
before  the  present  elaborate  system  of  distribut 
ing  city  dailies  at  daybreak  scores  of  miles  from 
the  place  of  publication  had  even  a  beginning, 
the  country  newspaper,  the  county  weekly  news 
paper,  was  the  great  source  of  political  and  gen 
eral  intelligence  for  a  large  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  land.  They  expected  the  editor  to  furnish 
them  with  comprehensive  views  of  passing  events 
in  the  political  world,  and  to  interpret  those  events 
for  them.  The  editor  recognized  it  as  his  duty  to 
meet  this  expectation,  and  performed  it  to  the 
best  of  his  ability.  He  did  not  assume  that  his 
readers  desired  merely  opinions,  and  that  they 
would  turn  impatiently  from  an  article  which 
they  could  not  read  in  five  minutes.  He  knew 
that  they  would  give  their  evenings  to  a  careful 
and  studious  perusal  of  his  editorial  articles.  Ac 
cordingly  he  gave  them  not  merely  the  result  of 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    33 

his  own  thinking,  but  a  statement  of  the  mental 
process  by  which  he  had  reached  that  result.  The 
editors  of  that  time  did  not  attempt  to  "cover" 
all  the  news  of  the  world  in  each  issue ;  but  the 
few  things  they  did  treat  they  explained  and  ex 
pounded,  and  set  forth  their  political  faith  and 
the  reasons  for  it  with  patient  iteration. 

The  country  newspaper  thus  became  an  oracle, 
and  the  editor  was  its  mouthpiece  and  inter 
preter.  Farmers  pored  over  its  closely  printed 
columns.  Leading  articles  were  discussed  around 
the  stove  in  the  country  store  by  the  neighbors 
who  gathered  there  for  conversation.  The  editor 
might  have  taken  no  special  course  of  training  to 
qualify  him  to  be  a  leader  of  public  opinion,  but 
his  duties  forced  him,  and  his  opportunities  in 
vited  him,  to  become  the  one  man  in  the  com 
munity  who  studied  politics  deeply.  He  was 
made  a  leader  by  the  mere  force  of  the  position 
he  occupied.  What  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  be  deemed  the  fittest  person  to  set  forth 
his  views  in  spoken  debate  in  the  halls  of  legisla 
tion,  state  and  national,  or  to  carry  out  his  prin 
ciples  in  executive  station  ? 

Luther  Severance  himself  was  one  of  the  best 
products  of  the  system,  if  system  it  may  be  called. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  the  printers'  case,  and  like 
many  other  editors  of  the  time,  frequently  put  his 
articles  in  type  without  having  previously  written 


34  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

them.  He  made  the  "Kennebec  Journal"  the 
most  influential  leader  of  public  thought  in  the 
state.  His  constituency  was  an  intelligent  com 
munity,  ninety-seven  per  cent,  native,  and  almost 
exclusively  of  New  England  origin.  Maine  usu 
ally  gave  a  Democratic  majority  at  national  and 
state  elections,  but,  largely  no  doubt  in  conse 
quence  of  Mr.  Severance's  efforts,  Kennebec 
County,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  state,  was  con 
sistently  Whig.  Augusta,  as  the  capital,  was 
naturally  a  place  of  much  political  importance. 
Commercially  it  was  the  head  of  navigation  on 
the  Kennebec  River,  and  was  the  market  for  the 
country  trade  of  a  large  and  prosperous  region. 
On  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Severance  as  Com 
missioner  to  Hawaii,  he  and  his  partner,  Mr. 
Dorr,  sold  the  "  Journal "  to  William  H.  Simpson 
and  William  H.  Wheeler,  who  conducted  it  until 
1854.  Mr.  Wheeler  meantime  sold  his  interest  in 
the  paper  to  his  partner,  but  continued  to  act  as 
editor  until  the  spring  of  1854,  when  he  retired, 
and  Joseph  Baker,  a  leading  lawyer  of  Augusta, 
was  employed  as  editor.  It  is  not  a  matter  for 
wonder  that  with  an  editor  wholly  without  expe 
rience,  who  was  moreover  actively  carrying  on  a 
lucrative  law  business,  the  paper  sometimes  suf 
fered.  It  was  this  circumstance  that  led  to  the 
entrance  of  Mr.  Elaine  into  the  profession  in 
which  he  also  was  without  experience. 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL   LEADER    35 

The  idea  was  first  suggested  to  him  by  Mr. 
Dorr,  who,  although  no  longer  pecuniarily  inter 
ested  in  the  paper,  was  concerned  as  to  its  future. 
He  had  a  pride  in  its  past,  and  both  personally 
and  politically  desired  that  it  should  retain  its 
standing  and  influence.  He  saw  qualities  in  Mr. 
Elaine  which  were  most  desirable  in  an  editor,  — 
wide  information,  strong  convictions,  and  felicity 
of  expression.  The  suggestion  took  a  strong  hold 
upon  the  young  man.  It  was  on  a  railroad  train 
by  which  Mr.  Blaine  was  returning  to  Philadel 
phia  to  resume  his  work  as  teacher  in  the  Insti 
tute  for  the  Blind,  that  the  proposition  was  first 
made.  Upon  considering  it  with  his  wife  after 
reaching  Philadelphia,  he  determined  to  under 
take  the  duty,  if  the  necessary  arrangements 
could  be  made.  As  he  lacked  the  necessary  capi 
tal  he  applied  for  assistance  to  his  two  brothers- 
in-law,  Jacob  and  Eben  C.  Stan  wood,  both 
prosperous  merchants  in  Boston,  who  approved 
the  plan  and  furnished  the  means  to  carry  it  into 
execution.  Accordingly  he  resigned  his  position 
and  returned  to  Augusta  ;  a  partnership  with  the 
editor  was  formed,  and  the  issue  of  the  "  Journal " 
for  November  16, 1854,  announced  that  the  paper 
would  in  future  be  conducted  by  Messrs.  Baker 
and  Blaine.  It  may  be  said  here  that  Mr.  Baker's 
business  as  a  lawyer  soon  compelled  him  to  retire. 
Only  two  months  after  the  change  just  noted  he 


36  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

sold  his  half  interest  to  John  L.  Stevens,  and 
during  the  whole  of  the  remaining  time  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  active  connection  with  the  paper  it  was 
conducted  by  Messrs.  Stevens  and  Elaine.  Be 
tween  these  men  there  was  a  lifelong  personal 
and  political  friendship.  Mr.  Stevens,  after  his 
retirement  from  the  editorship,  was  United  States 
minister  to  three  countries,  —  to  Paraguay,  to 
Sweden  and  Norway,  and  to  Hawaii.  It  was  he 
who  at  Honolulu,  at  the  time  of  the  revolution  in 
1893,  took  the  measures  that  were  afterward  so 
severely  criticised  by  his  political  opponents. 

The  position  which  Mr.  Elaine  now  under 
took  to  fill  was  exactly  suited  to  his  tastes  and 
talents.  From  boyhood  he  had  shown  a  leaning 
toward  political  discussion,  and  whether  or  not 
we  suppose  him  to  have  been  already  stirred  with 
ambition  to  enter  public  life,  he  had  certainly 
stored  his  mind  with  such  information  regard 
ing  men  and  events,  issues  and  policies,  as  was 
likely  to  be  most  useful  in  conducting  a  party 
paper.  He  had  the  ardent  nature  which  develops 
a  strong  party  man,  and  had  already  formed  con 
victions  and  contracted  associations  to  which  a 
young  man  adheres  more  tenaciously  than  does 
one  who,  in  mature  age,  has  acquired  the  mental 
poise  that  enables  him  to  revise  his  own  opinions. 
He  was  able  to  adapt  himself  easily  to  the  modes 
of  life  and  of  thought  of  the  new  community  into 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    37 

which  he  was  entering,  but,  young  as  he  was,  he 
opened  before  that  community  a  wider  horizon, 
and  gave  it  a  more  extended  vision  than  it  had 
before.  A  facile  pen,  a  wonderful  memory,  a 
tendency  to  intellectual  combativeness,  and  a 
social  disposition  so  fascinating  that  it  made  his 
political  antagonists  his  personal  friends,  —  all 
combined  to  make  him  an  ideal  editor,  for  the 
time  and  the  place.  He  plunged  into  work  at 
once.  Broad  national  questions  were  absorbing 
public  attention.  To  these  he  addressed  himself; 
but  he  devoted  his  spare  time  to  a  careful  study 
of  the  political  history  of  Maine,  in  order  to  fit 
himself  for  all  the  duties  of  his  position. 

Mr.  Blaine  occupied  himself  at  one  time  by 
marking  carefully,  in  the  office  file  of  the  first 
volume  or  two  of  the  "  Kennebec  Journal "  under 
his  own  editorship,  his  own  contributions.  It  is 
an  amusing  incident  that  the  first  issue  contains 
a  review  from  his  pen  of  a  work  on  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans,  by  Abiel  A.  Lawrence.  Mr.  Blaine 
was  not  then  what  was  known  as  a  "professing 
Christian,'*  but  he  was  a  convinced  believer  in 
the  Presbyterian  creed,  and  a  stout  defender  of 
it.  Mr.  Lawrence's  doubts  and  criticisms  seemed 
to  the  young  reviewer  weak  and  illogical.  Two 
passages,  somewhat  similar  to  each  other,  show 
his  method  of  dealing  with  the  semi-heretic. 
"  The  election  of  some  to  eternal  salvation  is  here 


38  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

[in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans]  taught,  or  it  is 
not.  If  it  is,  admit  it  honestly.  If  it  is  not, 
deny  it  boldly.  ...  Is  the  Bible  the  Word  of 
God,  or  not  ?  If  it  is,  say  so;  if  it  is  not,  say  so 
like  a  man,  and  take  the  responsibility."  Mr. 
Blaine  was  all  his  life  inclined  to  theological  spec 
ulation,  and  often  held  long  and  earnest  discus 
sions  on  the  points  of  creeds,  not  only  with  his 
own  ministers,  but  with  visitors  at  his  home,  and 
with  members  of  his  family. 

Never  in  the  history  of  the  country  was  there 
a  more  favorable  time  for  a  young  editor  to  push 
his  way  to  the  front.  Old  political  associations 
were  dissolving,  new  associations  were  forming. 
The  authority  of  party  "war-horses"  could  not 
prevail  to  hold  men  to  their  allegiance.  Henry 
Clay  was  dead,  and  the  issues  with  which  he  had 
been  most  prominently  connected,  except  those 
arising  out  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  were  laid 
aside  and  forgotten.  A  variety  of  circumstances, 
chiefly  the  lavish  supply  of  gold  from  California, 
made  the  low  Tariff  of  1846  so  successful  tnat  it 
was  impossible  to  carry  on  an  effective  protection 
ist  propaganda.  No  one  regarded  internal  im 
provements,  or  French  spoliation  claims,  or  the 
land  question,  or  the  Bank,  —  questions  that  had 
disturbed  politicians  during  the  preceding  twen 
ty  years,  —  as  being  still  living  issues.  Slavery, 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  Kansas 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    39 

and  Nebraska,  "squatter  sovereignty,"  —  these 
were  the  subjects  that  engrossed  attention.  The 
Whig  party  had  gone  to  pieces  after  the  crushing 
reverse  of  1852.  Both  at  the  North  and  at  the 
South  a  large  fraction  of  that  party  had  been  car 
ried  as  by  a  whirlwind  into  the  "American," 
more  popularly  known  as  the  "  Know-Nothing," 
movement.  Although  it  did  not  so  appear  at  the 
time,  the  disruption  of  the  Whig  organization 
and  the  springing-up  of  a  passionate  opposition 
to  members  of  one  religious  faith,  —  as  un- 
American  as  it  was  certain  to  be  transitory,  — 
was  a  potent  agency  in  unifying  sectional  feeling 
on  both  sides  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Hos 
tility  to  Roman  Catholics  was  too  slender  a  basis 
for  a  national  party,  particularly  when  it  was 
necessary  for  that  party,  in  order  to  remain  whole, 
to  refrain  from  expressing  any  opinion  on  the 
subject  which  all  men,  the  members  of  that  party 
included,  were  discussing  hotly,  on  every  street 
corner.  So  it  came  about  that  in  the  South  all 
the  old  Whigs  except  a  few  "Union-savers" 
drifted  into  the  Democratic  party.  At  the  North 
old  animosities  between  Whigs  and  Democrats 
were  forgotten,  if  they  agreed  in  thinking  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Act  an  infamous  surrender  to 
the  slave-holding  South.  But  all  the  Whigs  did 
not  allow  themselves  to  be  swept  unresistingly 
into  what  they  regarded  as  an  abolitionist  move- 


40  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

merit.  Conservatively  they  allied  themselves  with 
the  Democrats,  mostly  led  by  the  official  class, 
who  either  did  not  credit  the  Southern  politicians 
with  a  determination  to  make  slavery  dominant, 
or  who  were  willing,  for  }  arty  purposes,  that  the 
South  should  rule  the  country. 

In  New  England,  in  Maine  especially,  another 
issue,  also  a  moral  issue,  helped  in  breaking  down 
old  party  lines,  so  that  men  could  pass  easily 
from  either  side  to  the  other,  —  the  question  of 
"temperance,"  and  the  "Maine  law."  Two  or 
three  years  before  the  Republican  party  was 
formed,  and  took  its  name,  the  advocates  of  pro 
hibition  in  Maine  had  become  accustomed  to  act 
together  in  local  contests,  and  even  in  state  elec 
tions.  The  "  temperance  men  "  were  almost  to  a 
man  Republicans  when  the  new  party  came  into 
existence. 

Just  before  Mr.  Blaine  removed  to  Maine,  at 
the  state  election  in  September,  1854,  Anson  P. 
Morrill  was  elected  governor.  A  "fusion"  was 
opposed  to  a  "  coalition."  The  Democrats  and 
the  "  Straight  Whigs  "  had  each  their  candidate 
for  governor,  but  they  combined  forces  in  some 
of  the  counties  in  the  support  of  candidates  for 
the  legislature.  Mr.  Morrill  was  the  candidate 
of  the  Temperance,  Know-Nothing  and  anti- 
Nebraska  political  elements,  then  just  combining 
under  the  Republican  name.  The  "Kennebec 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    41 

Journal, "  after  the  election,  classified  as  Repub 
licans  all  the  supporters  of  Mr.  Morrill  who  had 
been  elected  to  the  legislature.  In  a  long  article, 
justifying  the  use  of  this  designation,  then  a 
novelty,  it  said: 

"  We  did  not  certainly  know  the  exact  political 
stripe  of  many  of  them,  whether  they  were  Exclu 
sive  Whigs,  National  Whigs,  Reed  WThigs,  Mor 
rill  Whigs,  Morrill  Democrats,  Free  Soil  Whigs, 
or  Free  Soil  Democrats,  Coalition  Whigs,  or 
Coalition  Democrats,  or  Know- Nothings,  and  it 
would  have  been  folly  in  the  state  of  information 
which  we  then  had  to  divide  them  off  into 
stripes.  But  the  term  Republican  has  come  to 
have  a  well-defined  meaning,  and  informs  every 
one  that  the  person  thus  designated  sympathizes 
with  and  belongs  to  the  new  fusion  movement,  or 
People's  party  that  is  springing  up  throughout 
the  free  states  to  resist  the  encroachments  of 
slavery  and  maintain  the  rights  of  the  North." 

Mr.  Blaine's  readers,  then,  were  men  who  had 
divested  themselves  of  their  old  party  prejudices, 
who  were  not  merely  willing,  but  eager  to  have 
their  conduct  in  breaking  away  from  their  former 
political  associations  justified  by  any  one  who 
could  set  forth  the  history  of  past  encroachments 
of  slavery,  and  characterize  fitly  the  misdeeds  of 
the  administration  of  Franklin  Pierce.  He  was 
at  his  best  in  writing  of  that  sort.  One  finds  in  his 


42  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

political  articles  little  that  suggests  a  constructive 
statesman  in  embryo.  His  strong  point  as  an 
editor  was  the  attack.  As  a  leader  in  opposition, 
as  the  spokesman  of  a  party  without  a  history, 
there  was  nothing  for  him  to  defend.  His  eye  was 
always  seeking  the  joints  in  the  enemy's  harness, 
into  which  to  thrust  his  sharp-pointed  sword. 
There  was  a  Democratic  weekly  newspaper  in 
Augusta,  the  "Age,"  which,  soon  after  Mr. 
Blaine's  removal  to  Maine,  came  under  the  edit 
orship  of  Messrs.  Fuller  and  Fuller,  uncle  and 
nephew.  The  junior  editor  is  now  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States.  The  two  rival  news 
papers  were  naturally  at  perpetual  war.  Neither 
of  them  was  polite  or  respectful  to  the  other.  The 
interchange  of  vituperative  epithets  by  the  editors 
of  the  New  York  newspapers  set  a  fashion  which 
was  almost  universally  followed  wherever  the 
conductor  of  a  political  journal  found  one  of  the 
opposite  faith  who  would  bandy  words  with  him. 
In  their  attacks  upon  public  men  the  writers  of 
that  time  did  not  greatly  surpass  those  of  to-day 
in  coarseness  and  brutality. 

In  January,  1855,  the  Republican  legislature 
designated  the  "  Journal "  as  the  "  State  paper  " 
in  which  all  official  advertisements  were  to  be 
inserted,  instead  of  the  "  Age,"  which  had  enjoyed 
the  state  patronage  for  thirteen  years.  It  also 
made  a  contract  with  the  proprietors  of  the 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    43 

"  Journal "  to  do  the  state  printing.  The  "  Jour 
nal"  was  a  paying  property  by  itself;  the  two 
favors  by  the  legislature  made  it  highly  profitable. 
Years  afterward  Mr.  Blaine  wrote:  "Was  I  not 
then  State  printer,  making  $4000  a  year  and 
spending  $600,  a  ratio  between  outlay  and  in 
come  which  I  have  never  since  been  able  to  estab 
lish  and  maintain?"  Besides  being  frugal  in 
expenditure,  he  was  wise  in  investment,  for  he 
devoted  his  savings  to  the  purchase  of  coal  lands 
in  Pennsylvania,  which  yielded  him  a  handsome 
return,  and  which  increased  greatly  in  value  as 
the  region  was  developed. 

Politics  did  not  occupy  the  young  editor's 
attention  to  the  exclusion  of  other  important 
matters.  He  discussed  the  Crimean  War,  some 
times  at  great  length,  and  examined  other  foreign 
topics.  At  the  beginning  of  1855,  he  prepared  a 
long  historical  sketch  of  the  important  world 
events  of  each  year  of  the  Christian  era  ending 
with  the  figures  55.  He  wrote  an  extended 
memoir  of  Mr.  Severance,  which  filled  fourteen 
of  the  long  columns  of  the  "  Journal."  During 
each  winter  there  was  a  course  of  lectures  before 
the  Augusta  Lyceum.  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  each 
week  a  summary  of  the  lecturer's  views  upon  the 
subject  discussed,  and  expressed  his  own  opinion. 
These  are  examples  of  his  work  that  show  his 
many-sidedness. 


44  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

From  the  editorial  chair  Mr.  Blaine  moved 
easily  into  public  life.  His  first  step  in  that  direc 
tion  was  taken  when  he  was  chosen  one  of  the 
three  district  delegates  to  the  Republican  Na 
tional  Convention  of  1856,  which  nominated 
John  C.  Fremont  as  a  candidate  for  president. 
He  was  one  of  the  secretaries  of  that  convention. 
His  own  preference  in  the  matter  of  candidates 
was  Judge  McLean  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who 
was  "mentioned"  for  the  presidency  at  almost 
every  election  from  1832  until  1860,  and  who 
seemed  a  somewhat  formidable  contestant  for  the 
nomination  in  four  or  five  Whig  and  Republican 
conventions.  Mr.  Blaine  had  no  difficulty  in  ac 
cepting  the  choice  of  Fremont  as  a  wise  one,  and 
worked  heartily  and  hopefully  for  his  election. 
In  the  canvass  in  Maine,  in  1856,  he  made  his 
first  appearance  on  the  stump.  He  distrusted 
his  own  power  as  a  public  speaker,  until  he 
found,  after  several  meetings,  that  his  audience 
was  attentive  and  interested,  and  that  he  could 
think  clearly  and  express  himself  easily,  while 
on  his  feet.  He  introduced  one  of  his  early 
speeches  with  a  story.  Gail  Hamilton  narrates 
that  he  went  to  Farmington  to  hear  Senator 
William  Pitt  Fessenden  speak,  and  with  no  inten 
tion  to  speak  himself.  But  Mr.  Fessenden  did 
not  arrive  in  time,  and  some  of  his  Augusta 
friends  put  him  forward  to  take  the  platform. 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    45 

He  likened  his  situation  to  that  of  a  farmer  who 
had  a  horse  for  which  he  asked  five  hundred 
dollars.  A  horse  trader  offered  him  seventy-five 
dollars  for  the  animal.  "  It's  a  devil  of  a  drop," 
said  the  farmer,  "but  I'll  take  it,"  The  story 
and  the  speech  that  followed  greatly  pleased  his 
hearers.  Nevertheless,  at  that  time  Mr.  Elaine 
was  not  a  good  story-teller.  The  art  of  employ 
ing  humor  as  an  aid  to  oratory  was  so  neces 
sary  that  he  practised  it  diligently,  and  ultimately 
made  it  one  of  the  chief  features  of  his  conversa 
tion  and  public  discussion. 

In  the  autumn  of  1857  Mr.  Blaine  was  per 
suaded  by  an  offer  of  the  then  munificent  salary 
of  two  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  become  the 
editor  of  the  "  Portland  Advertiser,"  the  leading 
daily  Republican  newspaper  of  the  state.  He 
continued  to  reside  in  Augusta  but,  by  the  terms 
of  his  contract  with  the  publisher,  was  in  Port 
land  five  days  in  the  week.  This  arrangement 
continued  for  something  less  than  three  years. 
It  was  terminated  in  1860,  when  the  new  pub 
lishers  of  the  "Advertiser"  decided  that  they 
must  have  an  editor  who  would  reside  in  Port 
land  and  identify  himself  with  the  interests  of 
the  city  as  well  as  with  those  of  the  paper.  Mr. 
Blaine  was  not  willing  to  leave  Augusta.  He 
had  already,  as  a  member  of  the  legislature, 
opposed  one  of  the  dearest  wishes  of  the  Portland 


40  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

people,  that  the  state  capital  be  removed  to  that 
city.  Accordingly  he  resigned  his  position,  and, 
save  that  he  edited  the  "  Kennebec  Journal "  for 
a  short  time  in  1860,  his  career  as  an  editor  came 
to  an  end. 

Mr.  Elaine's  first  official  service  was  rendered 
in  a  matter  which  gave  him  an  opportunity  to 
display  some  of  his  most  characteristic  qualities 
as  a  public  man.  The  state  prison  was  a  burden 
on  the  treasury  of  Maine.  There  was  as  yet  no 
objection  to  the  competition  of  prison  labor  with 
free  labor.  The  convicts  were  set  to  work  at  gain 
ful  occupations,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
prison  was  badly  located,  far  from  a  railroad 
and  even  at  some  distance  from  a  good  harbor, 
there  seemed  to  be  no  good  reason  why  it  should 
not  be  self-supporting.  The  legislature  passed 
a  resolve  in  1858,  directing  the  appointment  of  a 
commissioner  to  investigate  the  prison,  to  ascer 
tain  why  it  was  a  losing  enterprise,  and  to  propose 
remedies.  Governor  Anson  P.  Morrill  ap 
pointed  Mr.  Elaine  as  the  commissioner.  His 
report  made  a  most  interesting  exposure  of  bad 
management,  wastefulness,  and  "cooked"  ac 
counts.  He  showed  that,  when  the  annual  inven 
tory  of  stock  and  materials  was  made  in  the 
spring,  one  set  of  values  was  entered,  but  quite 
another  when  the  annual  balance  sheet  was  made 
up  for  the  report  to  the  legislature.  A  horse  at 


EDITOR  AND   POLITICAL  LEADER    47 

one  time  was  appraised  at  two  hundred  dollars, 
a  few  months  later  at  seventy-five  dollars,  and 
when  the  whole  year  had  elapsed  he  would  have 
recovered  the  lost  value.  Mr.  Elaine  showed  that 
this  practice  had  been  going  on  for  years,  and 
that  the  system  of  diverse  appraisement  extended 
to  everything,  —  farm  tools,  flour,  material  for 
manufacture,  and  manufactured  goods.  He  also 
took  the  bill  of  fare  of  the  prisoners  and  humor 
ously  calculated  the  enormous  amount  of  flour, 
beans,  meat,  and  other  things  which  the  cost  of 
feeding  them  would  procure  for  each  prisoner. 
The  report  was  accompanied  by  a  large  amount 
of  information  regarding  the  management  and 
the  cost  of  other  prisons.  It  made  a  sensation  in 
the  state,  and  led  to  a  change  of  wardens  and  a 
reform  in  the  management  of  the  prison. 

In  1858,  less  than  four  years  after  his  removal 
to  Maine,  Mr.  Elaine  was  chosen  one  of  the  two 
members  of  the  legislature  from  Augusta.  He 
took  no  very  active  part  in  the  proceedings  dur 
ing  the  first  year;  but  in  his  second  term,  in  the 
legislature  of  1860,  he  was  one  of  the  most  promi 
nent  members.  The  state  treasurer  was  a  de 
faulter.  He  was  a  former  minister  of  the  gospel 
who,  having  been  extremely  active  in  the  prohibi 
tion  movement,  was  elected  to  the  office  of  treas 
urer  as  a  reward  of  his  political  services.  He 
became  entangled  in  land  and  lumber  specula- 


48  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

tions,  and  was  an  easy  tool  of  men  much  worse 
than  himself.  Mr.  Elaine  was  the  chairman  on 
the  part  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
joint  committee  which  investigated  the  case.  The 
downfall  of  the  treasurer  was  deplorable ;  but  the 
inquiry  into  the  origin  and  history  of  the  embez 
zlement,  and  into  the  connection  therewith  of 
his  associates  in  the  speculation,  was  work  in 
which  Mr.  Blaine  revelled.  He  was  too  young 
and  too  strongly  gifted  with  a  sense  of  humor 
not  to  be  amused,  as  well  as  amazed,  at  the 
audacity  with  which  the  treasurer's  partners 
avowed  acts  which  made  them  morally  partici 
pants  in  the  embezzlement,  yet  not  punishable. 
It  was  Mr.  Blaine's  singular  good  fortune, 
during  his  whole  public  life  up  to  the  time  when 
he  was  a  candidate  before  a  national  convention, 
never  to  have  had  a  contest  for  a  nomination, 
and  never  to  have  been  in  serious  danger  of  defeat 
at  the  polls.  He  was  elected  four  times  to  the 
legislature  of  Maine,  and  on  each  occasion  was 
nominated  by  acclamation  and  elected  by  a  large 
majority.  In  1861,  beginning  his  third  term,  he 
was  chosen  Speaker,  and  had  no  competitor  for 
the  nomination  either  then  or  in  the  following 
year.  In  the  chair  he  showed  the  quick  grasp  of 
public  measures,  the  familiarity  with  parliamen 
tary  law,  and  the  ability  to  despatch  business 
rapidly,  which  he  afterwards  displayed  so  con- 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    49 

spicuously  in  the  office  of  Speaker  at  Washing 
ton.  Even  in  a  legislature  consisting  largely  of 
farmers,  parliamentary  tangles  will  occur.  Mr. 
Blaine  was  particularly  happy  in  explaining  the 
situation  so  clearly  that  no  one  could  make  the 
excuse  that  he  had  voted  under  a  misapprehen 
sion  as  to  the  effect  of  his  vote. 

From  almost  the  earliest  days  of  the  Republi 
can  party  Mr.  John  L.  Stevens,  Mr.  Elaine's 
partner  in  the  "  Kennebec  Journal,"  was  chair 
man  of  the  Republican  State  Committee  of 
Maine.  In  1859  he  retired  from  that  position, 
and  Mr.  Blaine  succeeded  him,  both  as  represen 
tative  of  Kennebec  County  on  the  committee  and 
as  chairman.  From  that  time  until  he  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State,  in  1881,  he  continued 
to  be  chairman,  and  was  at  the  head  of  affairs 
for  his  party  as  no  other  man  in  Maine  ever  was. 
During  more  than  twenty  years  he  was  usually 
the  prevailing  force  in  the  Republican  state  con 
ventions.  He  dictated  platforms ;  the  candidates 
were,  with  some  exceptions,  those  whom  he 
favored.  He  conducted  the  annual  canvass 
almost  autocratically.  To  him  were  left,  almost 
without  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  rest  of  the 
committee,  the  collection  of  campaign  funds, 
the  character  of  the  canvass,  the  selection  of 
speakers,  the  times  and  places  of  rallies;  and 
his  plans  were  rarely  or  never  modified  or  criti- 


50  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

cised.  All  reports  were  made  to  him,  and  he 
issued  the  orders,  which  his  local  lieutenants 
obeyed,  promptly  and  unquestioningly.  During 
the  greater  part  of  the  same  period  it  fell  to  him 
to  designate  many  of  the  federal  office-holders  in 
Maine,  and  to  find  places  in  the  departments  at 
Washington  and  at  foreign  posts  for  many  hun 
dreds  of  his  constituents. 

The  reader  of  the  foregoing  sentences  may  be 
pardoned  if  he  exclaims  that  they  describe  the 
functions  and  the  methods  of  the  political  "  boss." 
There  is,  nevertheless,  a  radical  difference  be 
tween  a  true  political  leader  and  a  boss.  The  es 
sential  characteristic  of  the  boss  is  self-seeking. 
He  may  desire  to  use  his  political  power  to  enrich 
himself;  or  he  may  appropriate  to  himself  the 
best  offices  in  the  gift  of  his  party;  or  he  may 
exercise  the  influence  he  has  obtained  simply  for 
the  pleasure  of  exercising  it,  defend  it  by  strik 
ing  down  all  who  dispute  his  supremacy,  and  let 
the  party  go  to  defeat  whenever  for  the  moment 
he  loses  control.  No  one  ever  suspected  or 
intimated  that  Mr.  Elaine  nised  his  ascendancy 
in  the  Republican  party  of  Maine  for  purposes 
of  pecuniary  profit.  He  sought  no  office  which 
that  party  could  give  him,  save  his  seat  in  Con 
gress,  and  for  that  he  was  indebted  to  the  people 
of  his  district  only.  Moreover,  he  never  had  a 
competitor  for  it.  Undeniably  he  enjoyed  leader- 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    51 

ship,  as  every  true  leader  does.  But  he  neither 
attained  his  position  nor  kept  it  by  the  use  of 
terror  and  threats,  the  chief  weapons  in  the 
armory  of  the  boss.  Mr  Blaine  was  too  wise  a 
politician  not  to  see  that  such  a  policy  results  in 
evitably  in  faction.  He  was  too  earnest  a  party 
man  to  desire  anything  less  than  a  perfectly 
harmonious  party,  united  in  victory,  united  in 
defeat,  harboring  no  jealousies,  reserving  no 
punishments  for  mutineers.  He  was  large-minded 
enough  to  have  sympathy  for,  as  well  as  to  under 
stand,  the  momentary  hostility  toward  himself 
of  some  politician  whose  ambition  he  had  not 
been  able  to  promote.  But  he  was  the  last  man 
to  cherish  animosities  or  to  take  vengeance  upon 
an  enemy.  His  method  was  to  mollify  the  mal 
contents,  to  draw  back  into  cordial  relations 
those  who  were  temporarily  alienated  from  him. 
Not  all  of  them  were  amenable  to  this  policy,  and 
the  number  of  discontented  increased  as  time 
went  on.  Moreover,  there  are  always  those  who 
go  into  opposition  for  no  better  reason  than  that 
they  grow  tired  of  hearing  Aristides  called  "  the 
Just."  Men  of  that  stamp  grew  tired  of  the  con 
summate  political  generalship  of  Mr.  Blaine, 
which  gathered  around  his  standard  most  of 
those  who  did  not  hold  themselves  apart  on  ac 
count  of  envy  or  disappointment.  But  all  those 
who  chafed  under  his  supremacy  never  consti- 


52  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

tuted  more  than  a  pitiful  minority  of  the  Repub 
licans  of  Maine. 

In  another  most  important  particular  he  dif 
fered  widely  from  the  typical  political  boss. 
Sometimes  he  did  not  carry  his  plans,  but  defeat 
or  success  made  no  difference  in  the  energy 
which  he  put  into  the  ensuing  campaign.  Nor 
was  it,  as  in  the  case  of  some  leaders,  a  mere  pre 
tence  of  energy,  for  he  won  for  candidates  whom 
he  had  not  selected  victories  as  notable  as  for 
those  who  were  his  original  choice.  Neither  as 
a  political  chieftain  in  Maine  nor  in  a  national 
canvass  was  he  ever  known  to  sulk  in  his  tent, 
however  greatly  his  plans  might  have  been  dis 
arranged,  no  matter  how  grievous  his  personal 
disappointment  might  have  been.  It  is  easy  to 
ascribe  his  conduct  in  this  respect  to  policy,  but 
does  it  not  mark  the  essential  difference  between 
a  party  leader  and  a  leader  who  has  degenerated 
into  a  boss  ?  In  the  one  case  and  not  in  the  other, 
success  of  the  party,  and  an  opportunity  to  carry 
into  effect  the  principles  of  the  party,  are  the 
chief,  the  only  controlling  motives,  and  personal 
triumph  is  secondary.  How  few  politicians  there 
are  who  can  feign  a  deep  interest  in  the  fortunes 
of  a  candidate  to  whom  they  have  been  warmly 
opposed,  or  who  can  refrain  from  exultation  if  re 
jection  of  their  plans  has  been  followed  by  party 
defeat!  After  all  it  is  not  the  acts  of  a  leader, 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    53 

so  much  as  his  motives  and  purposes,  so  much 
as  his  inaction  after  being  thwarted,  that  distin 
guish  one  who  is  a  boss  from  one  who  is  not. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  not  a  delegate  to  the  Republi 
can  National  Convention  in  1860.  Mr.  Stevens, 
his  former  partner,  who  was  a  delegate,  was  an 
earnest  partisan  of  Mr.  Seward.  Mr.  Blaine 
went  to  Chicago  as  an  interested  spectator  of  the 
proceedings.  He  also  was  an  admirer  of  Seward, 
but  he  not  only  favored  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  but  exerted  himself  zealously  to  bring  it 
about.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  tells  of  his  constant 
effort  during  the  journey  to  Chicago  to  persuade 
Governor  Lot  M.  Morrill,  one  of  the  Maine  dele 
gates,  that  Lincoln  was  the  man  for  the  time. 
Mr.  Morrill  was  not  convinced  until  he  reached 
the  convention  city.  After  the  nomination  had 
been  made,  Mr.  Blaine  accompanied  to  Spring 
field  the  committee  appointed  to  give  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  formal  notice  of  the  action  of  the  con 
vention.  On  his  return  to  Augusta  he  found  Mr. 
Stevens  in  a  state  of  great  disappointment  over 
the  defeat  of  Seward,  and  at  his  request  resumed 
for  a  few  weeks  his  old  position  as  editor  of  the 
"  Kennebec  Journal."  The  summer  and  autumn 
months  of  1860  were  a  season  of  great  activity 
and  hard  work.  Mr.  Blaine  managed  the  Repub 
lican  canvass,  and  was  himself  constantly  on  the 
stump.  The  Democratic  candidate  for  governor 


52  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

tuted  more  than  a  pitiful  minority  of  the  Repub 
licans  of  Maine. 

In  another  most  important  particular  he  dif 
fered  widely  from  the  typical  political  boss. 
Sometimes  he  did  not  carry  his  plans,  but  defeat 
or  success  made  no  difference  in  the  energy 
which  he  put  into  the  ensuing  campaign.  Nor 
was  it,  as  in  the  case  of  some  leaders,  a  mere  pre 
tence  of  energy,  for  he  won  for  candidates  whom 
he  had  not  selected  victories  as  notable  as  for 
those  who  were  his  original  choice.  Neither  as 
a  political  chieftain  in  Maine  nor  in  a  national 
canvass  was  he  ever  known  to  sulk  in  his  tent, 
however  greatly  his  plans  might  have  been  dis 
arranged,  no  matter  how  grievous  his  personal 
disappointment  might  have  been.  It  is  easy  to 
ascribe  his  conduct  in  this  respect  to  policy,  but 
does  it  not  mark  the  essential  difference  between 
a  party  leader  and  a  leader  who  has  degenerated 
into  a  boss  ?  In  the  one  case  and  not  in  the  other, 
success  of  the  party,  and  an  opportunity  to  carry 
into  effect  the  principles  of  the  party,  are  the 
chief,  the  only  controlling  motives,  and  personal 
triumph  is  secondary.  How  few  politicians  there 
are  who  can  feign  a  deep  interest  in  the  fortunes 
of  a  candidate  to  whom  they  have  been  warmly 
opposed,  or  who  can  refrain  from  exultation  if  re 
jection  of  their  plans  has  been  followed  by  party 
defeat!  After  all  it  is  not  the  acts  of  a  leader, 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    53 

so  much  as  his  motives  and  purposes,  so  much 
as  his  inaction  after  being  thwarted,  that  distin 
guish  one  who  is  a  boss  from  one  who  is  not. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  not  a  delegate  to  the  Republi 
can  National  Convention  in  1860.  Mr.  Stevens, 
his  former  partner,  who  was  a  delegate,  was  an 
earnest  partisan  of  Mr.  Seward.  Mr.  Blaine 
went  to  Chicago  as  an  interested  spectator  of  the 
proceedings.  He  also  was  an  admirer  of  Seward, 
but  he  not  only  favored  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  but  exerted  himself  zealously  to  bring  it 
about.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  tells  of  his  constant 
effort  during  the  journey  to  Chicago  to  persuade 
Governor  Lot  M.  Morrill,  one  of  the  Maine  dele 
gates,  that  Lincoln  was  the  man  for  the  time. 
Mr.  Morrill  was  not  convinced  until  he  reached 
the  convention  city.  After  the  nomination  had 
been  made,  Mr.  Blaine  accompanied  to  Spring 
field  the  committee  appointed  to  give  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  formal  notice  of  the  action  of  the  con 
vention.  On  his  return  to  Augusta  he  found  Mr. 
Stevens  in  a  state  of  great  disappointment  over 
the  defeat  of  Seward,  and  at  his  request  resumed 
for  a  few  weeks  his  old  position  as  editor  of  the 
"  Kennebec  Journal."  The  summer  and  autumn 
months  of  1860  were  a  season  of  great  activity 
and  hard  work.  Mr.  Blaine  managed  the  Repub 
lican  canvass,  and  was  himself  constantly  on  the 
stump.  The  Democratic  candidate  for  governor 


56  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

that  time,  fortified  by  abundant  citations  of  au 
thorities,  and  expressed  with  felicity  and  lucidity. 
He  read  his  own  views  into  the  President's  mes 
sage  sent  to  Congress  three  months  before,  and 
he  foretold  with  characteristic  prescience  the 
adoption  of  the  measures  advocated  in  the  reso 
lutions. 

"  I  read,  sir,  in  that  message,  something  more 
than  a  great  proposition  for  compensated  eman 
cipation.  I  read  in  it  a  declaration  as  plain  as 
language  can  make,  that  whatever  measures  may 
be  deemed  necessary  to  crush  out  this  rebellion 
speedily  and  effectually  will  be  unhesitatingly 
adopted.  What  else  does  the  President  mean 
when  he  says  that  *  all  indispensable  means  must 
be  employed  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,' 
that '  the  war  must  continue '  as  long  as  resistance 
continues,  without  regard  to  the  ruin  which  must 
attend  it  ?  What  does  the  President  mean  by  this 
language  ?  Still  more,  what  does  he  mean  when 
he  declares  that '  such  measures  as  may  obviously 
promise  great  efficiency  towards  ending  the 
struggle  must  and  will  come  ? '  I  ask  the  gentle 
man  what  the  President  means  by  that,  and  he 
refuses  to  answer  me.  It  means  the  adoption  of 
precisely  such  measures  as  we  are  discussing 
here  to-day,  and  these  resolutions  are  but  sus 
taining  the  already  foreshadowed  policy  of  the 
President,  whenever  the  necessity  for  their  en- 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    57 

forcement  arises,  or  whenever  they  may,  in  his 
own  language,  '  promise  great  efficiency  towards 
ending  the  struggle.' " 

The  canvass  of  1862  was  one  of  great  impor 
tance.  The  disasters  to  the  Union  cause  and  the 
unusual  and  arbitrary  acts  of  the  Executive, 
necessary  as  they  may  have  been  in  the  circum 
stances,  gave  a  fresh  opportunity  to  those  who, 
from  any  cause,  were  opposed  to  the  adminis 
tration  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  Democratic  conven 
tions  in  most  of  the  leading  states  of  the  Union 
made  much  of  the  steps  that  had  already  been 
taken  in  the  direction  of  rendering  the  institution 
of  slavery  useless  as  a  support  of  the  cause  of  the 
South.  They  condemned  such  action  as  uncon 
stitutional,  predicted  that  the  consequence  would 
be  to  fill  the  Northern  states  with  a  degraded 
population,  and  did  all  that  was  possible  to 
arouse  race  prejudice. 

Mr.  Blaine  foresaw,  early  in  the  season,  that 
there  was  to  be  a  fierce  political  contest.  Weeks 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Democratic  convention 
in  New  York  he  predicted  the  nomination  of 
Horatio  Seymour  for  governor,  and  expressed 
his  fear  that  the  Republicans  would  be  defeated. 
He  was  to  bear  a  double  burden  that  year,  for 
not  only  was  the  conduct  of  the  state  canvass 
intrusted  to  him,  as  usual,  but  it  was  fully  under 
stood  that  he  was  to  be  the  Republican  candidate 


58  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

for  Congress  from  the  third  district,  and  he  would 
be  obliged  to  look  especially  after  his  own  politi 
cal  fortunes.  At  the  district  convention  held  at 
Waterville  on  July  8,  1862,  he  received  the  first 
of  seven  consecutive  unanimous  nominations  as  a 
Representative  in  Congress.  In  his  speech 
accepting  the  nomination  he  indicated  that  there 
was  but  one  plank  in  his  platform. 

"  I  deem  it  my  duty  to  say  that  if  I  am  called 
to  a  seat  in  Congress,  I  shall  go  there  with  a  de 
termination  to  stand  heartily  and  unreservedly 
by  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In 
the  success  of  that  administration,  under  the 
good  Providence  of  God,  rests,  I  solemnly  believe, 
the  fate  of  the  American  Union.  If  we  cannot 
subdue  the  Rebellion  through  the  agency  of  the 
administration,  there  is  no  other  power  given 
under  Heaven  among  men  to  which  we  can 
appeal.  Hence  I  repeat  that  I  shall  conceive  it  to 
be  my  duty,  as  your  representative,  to  be  the 
unswerving  adherent  of  the  policy  and  measures 
which  the  President  in  his  wisdom  may  adopt. 
The  case  is  one,  in  the  present  exigency,  where 
men  loyal  to  the  Union  cannot  divide." 

The  result  of  the  elections  throughout  the 
country  came  perilously  near  being  a  political 
disaster.  In  many  of  the  states,  notably  in  New 
York,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  the  Republicans  were 
defeated.  The  administration  majority  in  the 


EDITOR  AND  POLITICAL  LEADER    59 

House  of  Representatives  was  reduced  to  about 
twenty.  Mr.  Blaine  was  elected  ;  but  for  the  first 
time  in  ten  years  one  of  the  Maine  districts 
returned  a  Democrat.  The  Republican  candi 
date  for  governor,  Abner  Coburn,  slipped  in  by 
the  abnormally  small  majority  of  four  thousand. 
He  was  an  excellent  man,  but  an  extremely  weak 
candidate,  and  was  in  office  but  a  single  year. 

Mr.  Blaine  had  an  opportunity,  before  he  began 
his  service  in  Congress,  to  render  important  assis 
tance  to  the  administration  by  organizing  a  great 
victory  at  the  state  election  of  1863.  By  his 
advice  the  Republican  name  was  dropped  for  a 
time.  All  who  favored  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  by  the  exercise  of  military  power  were 
invited  to  the  annual  state  convention.  Mr. 
Blaine  selected  as  the  candidate  for  governor 
Samuel  Cony  of  Augusta,  an  old  Democrat,  but 
one  whose  loyalty  was  above  party.  He  easily 
secured  the  nomination  for  Mr.  Cony,  and  fol 
lowed  the  action  of  the  convention  by  organizing 
the  most  systematic  and  thorough  canvass  Maine 
had  ever  known.  Political  rallies  were  held  in 
every  town  and  hamlet.  Speeches  and  other 
documents  to  be  read  at  home  were  sent  out  in 
sufficient  numbers  to  reach  every  voter,  not  once 
but  many  times.  A  considerable  part  of  the  funds 
necessary  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  campaign 
was  obtained  by  assessment  of  office-holders,  a 


60  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

practice  against  which  no  objection  was  then 
raised  in  any  quarter.  These  measures  were  suc 
cessful  in  increasing  by  many  thousand  the 
majority  for  the  Union  candidate.  Even  so  far 
back  as  1840,  the  result  of  the  September  election 
in  Maine  was  regarded  as  an  indication  of  the 
tendency  of  political  movements:  The  Harrison 
men  sang,  — 

Have  you  heard  the  news  from  Maine, 
How  she  went,  how  she  went  ? 
She  went, 
Hell  bent, 

•     For  Governor  Kent, 
For  Tippecanoe,  and  Tyler  too. 

In  war  times  and  subsequently,  even  to  the  pre 
sent  day,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  result  in  Maine 
both  affords  some  indication  of  the  results  at  the 
ensuing  general  election,  and  exerts  some  influ 
ence  upon  those  who  wish  to  be  oti  the  winning 
side;  and  in  1863  Governor  Cony's  majority  was 
a  great  encouragement  to  Union  men  through 
out  the  North. 


IV 

SIX   YEARS   IN  CONGRESS 

THE  Thirty-eighth  Congress  assembled  on 
December  7,  1863,  and  on  that  day  Mr.  Elaine 
began  a  service  in  Congress  of  seventeen  years, 
four  of  which  were  in  the  Senate.  His  first  com 
mittee  appointments  were  not  to  prominent 
places,  and  the  part  which  he  took  in  the  pro 
ceedings  was  modest,  but  by  no  means  obscure. 
He  came  forward  in  April,  1864,  with  a  measure 
for  the  assumption  by  the  general  government  of 
the  war  debts  of  the  loyal  states,  which  he  advo 
cated  in  a  carefully  prepared  speech.  He  fortified 
his  position  by  a  historical  study  of  the  policy  of 
Hamilton  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under 
Washington.  He  also  proposed  and  urged  with 
much  earnestness  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  strike  from  it  the  prohibition  of  a  duty 
on  exports.  The  object  of  his  proposition  was 
temporary,  —  to  enable  Congress  to  impose  a 
duty  on  cotton  exported,  but  his  argument  was  a 
general  one.  Neither  he  nor  any  one  else  would 
favor  a  systematic  taxation  of  exports,  but  emer 
gencies  in  respect  of  certain  articles  of  production 
do  arise  when  the  power  to  tax  exports  would  be 


62  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

useful.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  remembered  that  this  is 
the  only  power  inherent  in  sovereignty  which  is 
expressly  renounced  in  the  Constitution,  and  is 
therefore  the  only  one  which  does  not  exist,  either 
in  the  national  government  or  in  the  states. 

Mr.  Blaine  occasionally  engaged  in  debate, 
properly  so  called,  and  acquitted  himself  with 
credit.  When  the  bill  organizing  the  National 
Bank  system  was  under  discussion  he  attacked  a 
provision  allowing  the  banks  to  charge  and  col 
lect  seven  per  cent,  on  their  loans.  He  disclaimed 
belief  in  usury  laws,  but  insisted  that  so  long  as 
some  of  the  states  forbade  the  taking  of  interest 
beyond  six  per  cent.,  the  national  banks  in  those 
states,  which  would  not  be  amenable  to  state 
laws,  should  not  be  permitted  to  take  more  than 
private  lenders  and  state  banks.  He  fought 
valiantly  for  an  amendment  to  prevent  this  injus 
tice,  but  was  opposed  by  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who 
virtually  controlled  the  House,  and  was  unsuccess 
ful.  But  subsequently  he  brought  the  measure 
forward  again,  in  a  slightly  different  form,  and 
carried  his  point,  on  a  yea  and  nay  vote.  It  is 
perhaps  significant  that  Mr.  Stevens  did  not 
answer  to  his  name  on  this  amendment,  although 
he  is  recorded  as  having  voted  on  the  roll-call 
immediately  before,  and  on  that  immediately 
afterward. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  session  of  the 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  63 

first  Congress  of  which  he  was  a  member,  Mr. 
Elaine  won  a  notable  victory  over  Mr.  Stevens. 
On  the  second  day  of  the  session,  December 
6,  1864,  Stevens  introduced  a  bill  the  aim  of 
which  was  to  force  equality  between  the  gold 
dollar  and  the  paper  dollar  by  imposing  pen 
alties  of  both  fine  and  imprisonment  upon  per 
sons  who  should  in  business  transactions  make 
a  discrimination  against  the  legal  tender  paper 
money.  It  also  declared  that  a  contract  made 
payable  in  coin  might  be  satisfied  with  paper 
money.  The  bill  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means.  The  fact  of  the  introduction 
of  the  bill  was  not  known  in  Wall  Street  until  after 
the  close  of  business ;  but  the  next  morning  there 
was  a  great  advance  in  the  premium  on  gold. 
Directly  after  the  reading  of  the  journal  at  the 
opening  of  the  session  on  the  7th,  Mr.  Blaine 
rose,  moved  a  reconsideration  of  the  vote  referring 
the  bill  to  the  committee,  and  supported  the 
motion  in  a  terse,  compact,  and  lucid  speech  in 
which  he  pointed  out  the  futility  of  all  attempts 
to  regulate  the  value  of  money  by  punishing  those 
who  would  not  give  the  better  sort  for  the  poorer, 
and  dwelt  upon  the  mischief  already  done  by  the 
mere  introduction  of  Mr.  Stevens 's  bill.  The 
author  of  the  measure  defended  it,  although  he 
admitted  that  some  of  its  provisions  might  be 
found  too  harsh.  Mr.  Elaine's  motion  was  car- 


64  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

ried,  by  a  good  majority,  and  was  followed  by  a 
motion,  which  also  was  adopted,  that  the  bill  be 
laid  on  the  table,  which,  in  the  practice  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  is  a  vote  finally  to  re 
ject  a  measure.  Naturally,  in  this  attack  upon 
the  leader  of  the  House,  Mr.  Blaine  had  the  sup 
port  of  all  the  Democrats.  It  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  the  minority  who  voted  with  Mr.  Stevens 
included  such  prominent  and  authoritative 
names  as  General  Robert  C.  Schenck,  Henry 
Winter  Davis,  Rufus  P.  Spalding,  Justin  S. 
Morrill,  Samuel  Hooper,  James  A.  Garfield,  and 
others  of  high  standing. 

Mr.  Stevens,  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Blaine,  em 
ployed  that  power  of  sarcasm  which  he  was 
accustomed  to  bring  into  service,  whether  he  was 
dealing  with  a  political  enemy  or  a  friend.  He 
sneered  at  Mr.  Elaine's  "  intuitive  way  of  getting 
at  a  great  national  question,"  a  phrase  which  was 
strictly  applicable  to  him,  although  it  was  used 
satirically.  A  month  later,  on  January  5,  1865, 
Stevens  brought  the  subject  up  again,  inci 
dentally,  and  in  giving  his  own  account  of  the 
affair  said  that  "the  House,  partaking  of  the 
magnetic  manner  of  my  friend  from  Maine,"  had 
thrown  out  his  bill.  This  was  perhaps  the  first 
time  that  the  word  "magnetic"  was  used  in  a 
characterization  of  Mr.  Blaine. 

No    more    momentous    political    contest   has 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  65 

occurred  in  the  history  of  the  country  than  the 
presidential  canvass  of  1864.  What  change  in 
the  course  of  events  would  have  been  effected  by 
the  defeat  of  Lincoln  and  the  election  of  Mc- 
Clellan  is  a  suggestion  that  opens  a  wide  field 
of  conjecture.  Yet  no  one  at  the  present  day  will 
doubt  that  the  supporters  of  the  administration 
were  right  in  their  apprehension  that  such  an 
event  would  render  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
more  difficult,  perhaps  impossible.  The  utmost 
efforts  were  put  forth  to  make  the  victory  over 
whelming.  Nowhere  was  the  importance  of  the 
result  more  fully  recognized  than  in  Maine.  That 
state  led  off  in  September  with  a  magnificent 
Republican  majority,  and  the  triumph  through 
out  the  country  was  complete  in  November.  The 
House  of  Representatives  elected  at  the  same 
time  was  Republican  in  the  proportion  of  nearly 
four  to  one,  for  at  the  election  of  Speaker  Mr. 
Colfax  received  139  to  36  for  Jaines  Brooks. 
New  England  sent  an  unbroken  delegation  of 
Republicans  from  each  one  of  the  six  states. 

Mr.  Elaine  was  apparently  not  favored  in  com 
mittee  assignments,  for  he  was  placed  next  to  the 
last  on  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs.  But 
it  is  probable  that  he  had  an  understanding  with 
the  Speaker  that  he  would  be  assisted  in  carrying 
a  resolution  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a 
select  committee  on  the  assumption  of  the  war 


66  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

debts  of  the  loyal  states.  At  all  events  the  resolu 
tion  was  passed  and  Mr.  Blaine  was  appointed 
chairman. 

His  membership  of  the  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs  brought  about  one  of  the  most  sensational 
and  regrettable  incidents  of  his  public  life.  His 
defeat  of  Mr.  Stevens  on  the  gold  bill,  a  bold  and 
successful  defiance  of  the  leader  of  the  House  by 
a  member  in  his  first  term,  was  the  first  in  a  long 
series  of  dramatic  events.  His  encounter  with 
Mr.  Conkling  was  the  second.  The  bill  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  regular  army  was  under 
consideration.  Mr.  Blaine  was  not  in  charge  of 
the  bill,  but  as  a  member  of  the  military  commit 
tee  he  was  thoroughly  informed  as  to  the  details 
of  the  measure,  and  as  to  the  reasons  for  .each  of 
its  provisions.  The  trouble  between  him  and 
the  New  York  member  had  been  brewing  nearly 
a  fortnight  before  the  30th  of  April,  1866,  when 
the  final  breach  occurred.  On  one  or  two  occa 
sions  Mr.  Conkling  had  replied  to  Mr.  Blaine,  or 
had  referred  to  what  he  had  said,  in  a  tone  of 
assumed  superiority  which  must  have  been  offen 
sive;  but  Mr.  Blaine  took  no  public  notice  of  it. 
On  the  other  hand  he  opposed  strongly,  and 
with  perhaps  too  much  heat,  an  amendment  to 
the  army  bill,  proposed  by  Mr.  Conkling,  with 
reference  to  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps.  He  de 
clared  that  Mr.  Conkling  could  not  have  read 


SIX  YEARS  IN   CONGRESS  67 

the  bill,  since  his  remarks  were  based  upon  a 
misapprehension  of  what  was  proposed  with 
reference  to  the  corps. 

When  the  section  of  the  bill  providing  for  the 
organization  of  the  Provost  Marshal  General's 
office  was  reached,  Mr.  Conkling  moved  to  strike 
it  out  altogether,  because  "  it  creates  an  unneces 
sary  office  for  an  undeserving  public  servant." 
He  proceeded  to  make  a  violent  attack  upon 
Provost  Marshal  General  James  B.  Fry,  and 
insinuated,  if  he  did  not  charge  explicitly,  that 
that  officer  had  winked  at  bounty  frauds  and 
other  scandalous  irregularities.  In  support  of  his 
point  that  the  office  was  unnecessary  he  read  a 
letter  from  General  Grant,  who  expressed  the 
opinion  that  bureaus  should  not  be  multiplied, 
and  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  a  Provost 
Marshal  General. 

Mr.  Elaine  made  a  stout  defence  of  General 
Fry  as  "a  most  efficient  officer,  a  high-toned 
gentleman,  whose  character  is  without  a  spot  or 
blemish."  He  broke  the  force  of  General  Grant's 
letter  produced  by  Mr.  Conkling,  by  reading 
another  letter  from  Grant  in  which  he  advised 
that  the  entire  army  business  relating  to  deserters 
and  desertion  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  General 
Fry,  as  "  the  officer  best  fitted  for  that  position." 
He  thus  made  it  to  appear  that  General  Grant 
opposed  merely  the  formation  of  another  bureau, 


68  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

and  that  he  esteemed  General  Fry  highly  and 
recommended  that  the  whole  duty  which  was,  by 
the  bill,  to  be  laid  on  the  Provost  Marshal  Gen 
eral,  should  be  intrusted  to  him.  Mr.  Blaine 
went  further,  and  expressly  attributed  the  oppo 
sition  of  Mr.  Conkling  to  General  Fry  to  "the 
quarrels  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York  with 
General  Fry,  in  which  quarrels  it  is  generally 
understood  the  gentleman  came  out  second  best 
at  the  War  Department."  Mr.  Conkling  pro 
nounced  the  last  assertion  to  be  false,  and  denied 
that  he  had  had  any  quarrel  with  General  Fry. 
A  heated  colloquy  between  the  two  members 
ensued.  The  next  morning  Mr.  Blaine  rose  to  a 
personal  explanation  and  called  the  attention  of 
the  House  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Conkling  had  so 
edited  his  own  remarks  on  the  previous  day,  for 
insertion  in  the  "  Congressional  Globe,"  as  to 
render  meaningless  a  part  of  his,  Mr.  Elaine's, 
rejoinder.  Mr.  Conkling  had  said,  "  I  am  respon 
sible,  not  only  here,  but  elsewhere,  for  what  I 
have  said  and  what  I  will  say  of  the  Provost 
Marshal  General."  Mr.  Blaine  commented  on 
the  phrase  "not  only  here,  but  elsewhere"  as  a 
duellist's  expression.  Mr.  Conkling  amended  the 
sentence  to  read,  "  I  have  stated  facts  for  which  I 
am  willing  to  be  held  responsible  at  all  times  and 
places."  He  treated  the  matter  with  lofty  con 
tempt,  declared  that  the  change  made  no  differ- 


SIX  YEARS  IN   CONGRESS  69 

ence,  and  having  "thrown  back"  the  imputa 
tion,  closed  his  remarks  thus:  "and  I  say  to 
him  that  the  time  will  be  far  hence  when  it  will 
become  necessary  for  him  to  dispense  to  me  any 
information  or  instruction  with  regard  to  those 
rules  which  ought  to  govern  the  conduct  of 
gentlemen."  A  little  later  in  the  course  of  the 
debate  he  pronounced  a  statement  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  "without  any  shadow  of  foundation  in 
truth." 

This  encounter  took  place  on  the  25th  of  April. 
On  the  30th  Mr.  Blaine  caused  to  be  read  to  the 
House  a  letter  from  General  Fry  in  which  he  set 
forth  in  detail  the  circumstances  of  the  several 
differences  between  Mr.  Conkling  and  himself, 
fully  confirming  Mr.  Elaine's  original  statement 
that  the  two  men  had  quarrelled  and  that  Mr. 
Conkling  had  been  "worsted."  It  further  ap 
peared  from  copies  of  official  papers  accompany 
ing  General  Fry's  letter,  that  Mr.  Conkling  had 
been  employed  by  order  of  Charles  A.  Dana, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  to  investigate  cases 
of  fraud  in  enlistments  in  Western  New  York, 
and  that  for  this  purpose  a  commission  as  special 
Judge  Advocate  was  to  be  issued  to  him.  While 
Mr.  Conkling  was  explaining  his  relations  with 
General  Fry,  a  Democratic  member  by  persistent 
questioning  brought  out  the  fact  that  Mr.  Conk 
ling  received  payment  for  his  services,  under  Mr. 


70  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Dana's  order,  but  he  denied  that  he  ever  received 
a  commission  as  judge  advocate,  and  asserted 
that  his  compensation,  which  he  admitted  that 
he  had  received  while  drawing  pay  as  a  member 
of  Congress,  was  merely  a  "  counsel  fee." 

Mr.  Elaine  made  what,  it  must  be  conceded, 
was  an  irritating  speech,  when  he  obtained  the 
floor.  He  said  that  Mr.  Conkling  had  taken 
thirty  minutes  the  other  day  to  explain  that  an 
alteration  of  the  reporter's  notes  was  no  altera 
tion.  Now  he  had  taken  an  hour  to  show  that, 
although  he  had  been  at  swords'  points  with 
General  Fry  for  a  year,  there  was  no  difficulty  be 
tween  them.  He,  Mr.  Blaine,  read  from  the  law 
forbidding  any  person  holding  office  under  the 
government,  the  compensation  of  which  amounted 
to  $2250  a  year,  to  receive  compensation  "  for  dis 
charging  the  duties  of  any  other  office,"  and 
added,  "he  cannot  deny  that  he  discharged  the 
duties  of  judge  advocate  under  the  special  com 
mission  which  I  have  read,  and  he  was  paid  for 
the  discharge  of  those  duties." 

Mr.  Conkling  again  denied  that  he  had  received 
any  commission,  said  that  he  acted  only  as  coun 
sel,  and  then,  changing  his  tone  as  he  changed  the 
subject,  turned  upon  Mr.  Blaine  thus:  "Now, 
Mr.  Speaker,  one  thing  further:  if  the  member 
from  Maine  had  the  least  idea  how  profoundly 
indifferent  I  am  to  his  opinion  upon  the  subject 


SIX  YEARS  IN   CONGRESS  71 

he  has  been  discussing,  or  upon  any  other  subject 
personal  to  me,  I  think  he  would  hardly  take  the 
trouble  to  rise  here  and  express  his  opinion;" 
and  after  a  few  more  sentences  to  the  same  pur 
port,  he  apologized  for  having  been  "  drawn  into 
explanations  originally,  by  an  interruption  which 
I  pronounced  the  other  day  ungentlemanly  and 
impertinent,  and  having  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  the  question." 

It  is  well  not  to  reproduce  the  reply  of  Mr. 
Blaine,  one  of  the  most  picturesque  passages  of 
sarcasm  in  literature,  and  all  the  more  remarka 
ble  for  having  been  uttered  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment.  It  was  impossible  for  him  to  have  pre 
pared  it  in  advance,  for  nothing  had  occurred 
before  Mr.  Conkling's  final  remarks  were  made 
to  suggest  that  an  occasion  for  it  might  arise. 
Yet  the  speech  ought  to  be  forgotten  except  as  a 
classic  in  sarcasm.  It  has  been  necessary  to  nar 
rate  the  circumstances  of  the  encounter,  inas 
much  as  it  was  followed  by  consequences  detri 
mental  to  the  fortunes  of  one  of  the  two  men, 
perhaps  of  both,  if  not  by  consequences  important 
to  the  course  of  the  history  of  the  country.  The 
quarrel  was  between  two  men  whose  memory 
their  countrymen  should  honor.  It  led  to  the  one 
lasting  estrangement  of  Mr.  Elaine's  public  life, 
one  moreover  which  many  a  time  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  bring  to  an  end.  He  often  said  to  the 


72  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

friends  of  Mr.  Conkling  that  he  never  doubted 
that  gentleman's  probity  or  his  sense  of  honor. 
But  Mr.  Conkling,  whenever  he  was  approached 
on  the  subject  of  a  reconciliation,  was  implacable, 
and  the  two  statesmen  never  again  held  personal 
relations  of  any  sort  with  each  other. 

Although  Mr.  Blaine  was  not  a  member  of  the 
joint  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  he  took  a 
most  conspicuous  part  in  suggesting  the  form  of 
the  measures  which  were  ultimately  adopted  by 
Congress.  The  fagots  were  already  laid  for  a 
great  political  conflagration  when  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  met  in  December,  1865.  The 
President  had  taken  into  his  own  hands  the  task 
of  restoring  the  states  lately  in  rebellion.  His 
hostile  and  vengeful  attitude  toward  them  had 
quickly  given  place  to  one  of  excessive  leniency. 
Under  his  policy  the  States  would  have  come  back 
into  the  Union  with  those  in  absolute  control  of 
their  affairs  who  had  been  waging  war  against 
the  Union  for  four  years.  They  would  have 
returned  to  that  control  almost  without  condi 
tions,  and  with  increased  political  power  in  Con 
gress.  For  the  abolition  of  slavery  made  each  one 
of  the  former  slaves  a  unit  of  the  population  to  be 
counted  in  the  apportionment  of  representatives, 
instead  of  three-fifths  of  a  unit  as  under  "the 
Constitution  as  it  was."  Indeed,  President  John 
son's  provisional  governments  were  quite  devoid 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  73 

of  any  element  that  could  make  a  pretence  of 
loyalty  to  the  Union  during  the  war,  or  that  now 
made  a  pretence  of  accepting  frankly  the  results 
of  the  war. 

The  indignation  of  the  Northern  people  over 
such  an  unconditional  surrender  to  those  who 
had  been  compelled  to  surrender  uncondition 
ally  on  the  field  of  battle,  grew  daily  more  intense 
in  the  months  that  intervened  between  the  assas 
sination  of  the  President  and  the  meeting  of 
Congress.  Hardly  had  the  formal  business  of 
choosing  a  Speaker  been  completed,  when  Thad- 
deus  Stevens  applied  the  torch  to  the  combusti 
bles  by  introducing  a  resolution  providing  for  the 
appointment  of  a  joint  committee  to  consider  the 
relation  to  the  Union  of  the  states  lately  in  rebel 
lion,  and  declaring  that  no  member  from  any  of 
those  states  should  be  admitted  to  a  seat  in  either 
House  of  Congress  until  that  relation  should  have 
been  determined.  Then  began  the  great  debate 
on  Reconstruction,  which  soon  developed,  in 
speech  and  Act  of  Congress,  into  the  long  war 
between  the  President  and  the  party  to  which 
he  owed  his  office ;  reached  a  dramatic  climax  in 
the  very  closing  hour  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress;  and  was  followed  by  the  still  more  sensa 
tional  impeachment  proceedings. 

Mr.  Stevens's  position,  which  he  held  con 
sistently  from  the  beginning  of  the  political  war 


74  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

until  the  end  of  his  life,  was  that  the  states  had 
taken  themselves  out  of  the  Union,  that  their 
citizens  were  alien  enemies  who  had  been  con 
quered,  and  that  the  states  themselves  could 
regain  their  rights  only  by  readmission  as  foreign 
yf  territory.  To  this  theory  Mr.  Elaine  never  gave 

/>his  assent.  He  usually,  but  not  invariably,  sup 
ported  by  his  vote  the  measures  brought  forward 
by  the  Reconstruction  Committee,  but  his  words, 
his  propositions,  and  his  votes  tended  to  an 
amelioration  of  the  harsh  provisions  favored  by 
the  radical  members  who  controlled  the  action 

.  of  the  House.  He  was  as  strenuous  as  the  most 
radical  in  opposition  to  President  Johnson's 
policy,  and  in  upholding  the  principle  that  the 
Southern  states  should  not  be  permitted  to  fall 
under  the  domination  of  the  men  who  had  been 
in  arms  against,  or  who  had  been  otherwise  hos 
tile  to,  the  Union.  He  insisted  upon  effective 
guaranties  against  a  repetition  of  their  offence, 
and  upon  ample  protection  to  the  race  which  the 
fortunes  of  war  left  helpless  in  the  South.  To 
this  extent  he  was  a  radical  of  the  radicals.  But 
he  was  strongly  opposed  to  measures  which  im 
posed  conditions  on  the  South,  and  yet  held  out 
to  the  South  no  hope  that,  when  the  conditions 
had  been  met,  the  states  would  be  welcomed  back 
to  their  old  place  in  the  Union. 

Mr.  Elaine's  first  important  intervention  in 


or  THE    W!\ 
VERSITY  } 

OF 

- 

SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  75 

the  momentous  work  of  Reconstruction  took 
place  when  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
now  known  as  the  Fourteenth  was  under  dis 
cussion.  Measures  took  their  form  slowly,  by 
a  process  of  selection  from  an  abundance  of 
suggestions.  The  gross  injustice  and  inequality 
that  would  result  from  that  provision  in  the 
unamended  Constitution  which  would  give  the 
South  increased  representation  in  Congress  as  a 
consequence  of  emancipation,  was  universally 
recognized  by  Republicans.  No  one  supposed 
that  any  Southern  state  would  voluntarily  confer 
the  right  of  suffrage  upon  the  negroes.  Early  in 
the  Reconstruction  conflict  a  small  minority 
only  of  the  Republicans  would  have  favored 
forcing  negro  suffrage  upon  the  South.  Yet 
unless  some  change  were  made,  the  white  men 
who,  before  the  war,  cast  votes  for  themselves 
and  three-fifths  of  the  black  population,  would 
thenceforth  vote  for  themselves  and  all  the  blacks ; 
and  one  white  man  of  the  South  who  had  borne 
arms  against  the  government  would  be  nearly 
equal  in  political  power  to  two  loyal  men  of  the 
North. 

All  the  early  propositions  so  to  amend  the  Con 
stitution  as  to  eliminate  this  injustice  made  the 
number  of  voters  in  each  state  the  basis  of  ap 
portionment.  Mr.  Blaine  was  the  first  to  propose 
the  principle  that  was  ultimately  adopted,  namely, 


76  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

that  the  basis  should  continue  to  be  the  gross 
population,  which,  nevertheless,  should  be  di 
minished  proportionately  for  purposes  of  appor 
tionment,  should  the  elective  franchise  be  denied 
to  any  class  of  citizens.  His  plan  was  to  deduct 
from  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  any  state 
"those  to  whom  civil  or  political  rights  or  privi 
leges  are  denied  by  the  Constitution  or  laws  of 
such  state,  on  account  of  race  or  color."  His 
chief  argument  in  support  of  the  measure  was 
that  the  basis  of  voting  strength  would  introduce 
great  inequality  in  the  representation  of  the 
states  of  the  North.  He  cited  as  an  extreme  case 
California  and  Vermont,  the  population  of  which 
states  was  nearly  equal.  Owing  to  the  prepon 
derance  of  men  in  California  at  that  time,  an 
apportionment  based  on  the  number  of  voters, 
which  would  give  three  members  to  Vermont, 
would  allow  eight  members  to  California.  Al 
though  the  suggestion  thus  originally  made  by 
Mr.  Blaine  was  incorporated,  nearly  in  his  own 
words,  in  the  amendment  of  the  Constitution 
reported  by  the  Reconstruction  Committee,  it 
encountered  many  perils  in  its  passage  through 
the  two  Houses,  —  the  history  of  which  it  is  not 
necessary  to  narrate;  but  it  was  finally  adopted 
both  by  Congress  and  by  the  states,  and  is  to-day 
the  most  ineffective  and  the  most  openly  violated 
provision  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  77 

One  may  question  now,  as  few  men  questioned 
then,  if  the  proposition  first  brought  forward  by 
General  Schenck,  to  base  representation  upon 
the  number  of  voters,  would  not  have  been  the 
wiser  plan,  Mr.  Elaine's  powerful  objection  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding.  The  Southern 
people  and  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North 
opposed  the  amendment  stoutly.  Every  one  of 
the  former  Confederate  states,  except  Tennessee, 
once  rejected  it  with  contempt.  Yet  in  the  presi 
dential  canvass  of  1872  the  Democratic  party  in 
national  convention  assembled  registered  a 
pledge  "  to  oppose  any  reopening  of  the  questions 
settled  by  the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth,  and  Fif 
teenth  Amendments  of  the  Constitution."  So 
late  as  1880,  it  was  the  professed  purpose  of 
leading  Southern  statesmen  to  leave  undisturbed 
the  status  of  the  negro  as  a  citizen,  as  it  was 
fixed  by  the  constitutional  amendment. 

A  "  symposium  "  —  a  series  of  articles  in  an 
swer  to  the  questions  whether  the  negro  ought 
to  be  disfranchised,  and  whether  he  ought  to 
have  been  enfranchised  —  appeared  in  the 
March  number,  1880,  of  the  "  North  American 
Review."  It  was  opened  by  Mr.  Elaine,  whose 
article  was  commented  upon  by  Senator  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar,  General  Wade  Hampton,  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  Montgomery 
Blair,  James  A.  Garfield,  and  Wendell  Phillips. 


78  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

Mr.  Elaine  closed  the  discussion  with  a  sum 
ming  up  of  conclusions  and  a  general  commen 
tary  upon  the  opinions  advanced  by  the  other 
writers.  In  view  of  later  events  the  articles  merit 
careful  reading  and  study  by  men  of  all  parties 
and  all  parts  of  the  country.  Mr.  Blair  alone 
expressed  the  view  that  enfranchisement  of  the 
negroes  was  inexpedient  and  that  the  right  should 
be  withdrawn  from  them.  Mr.  Elaine  points 
significantly  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Blair  was  a 
member  of  Lincoln's  cabinet  when  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation  was  issued.  All  the  Demo 
crats  who  participated  in  the  discussion  did, 
nevertheless,  justify  more  or  less  explicitly  the 
partial  or  total  suppression  of  the  negro  vote,  not 
as  a  permanent  policy,  but  as  a  defensive  make 
shift  while  the  negro  was  fitting  himself  for  the 
great  duties  of  a  citizen.  They  agreed  with  Mr. 
Blaine,  not  only  in  holding  that  the  constitutional 
guaranties  were  so  strong  that  it  would  be  im 
possible  legally  to  take  away  the  right  of  suffrage, 
but  also  in  maintaining  that  it  would  be  inex 
pedient  so  to  do.  They  further  assured  the  coun 
try  that  there  was  no  disposition  on  the  part  of 
any  considerable  body  of  Southern  men  to  at 
tempt  a  reversal  of  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments. 

Evidently  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  the 
temper  of  the  Southern  people.   In  several  of  the 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  79 

Southern  states  negro  suffrage  has  been  practi 
cally  abolished  by  constitutional  amendments 
which  make  no  reference  to  race,  color,  or  servi 
tude.  It  has  been  abolished  permanently.  Pre 
cisely  the  situation  which  it  was  the  one  purpose 
of  the  Republicans,  in  1866,  to  avoid,  now  exists. 
The  white  voters  alone  exercise  all  the  political 
power  which  is  allotted  to  a  population  consist 
ing  of  whites  and  blacks.  If  the  proposition  to 
base  representation  upon  the  number  of  voters 
had  then  been  adopted,  no  doubt  it  would,  as 
Mr.  Blaine  pointed  out,  have  increased  unduly 
the  number  of  members  from  certain  states.  \ 
But  those  states  were  all  in  the  North,  and  the 
proportionate  power  of  the  "  loyal  states  "  would 
have  been  thereby  increased,  as  the  Republicans 
of  the  time  desired.  In  Reconstruction  times  the 
measure  would  have  served  as  an  incentive  to  the 
Southern  states  to  give  the  franchise  to  the  black 
men.  In  all  probability  it  would  have  rendered 
impossible  the  scandal  of  the  "  carpet  bag  "  state 
governments.  It  would  certainly  have  left  the 
history  of  our  country  unstained  by  the  horrors 
of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan.  So  far  as  the  plan  of  re 
presentation  on  the  basis  of  voters  introduced 
negro  suffrage,  it  would  have  acted  as  a  deterrent 
to  disfranchisement,  since  it  would  have  operated 
automatically  to  reduce  representation  whenever 
for  any  reason  the  elective  franchise  might  be 


80  JAMES  G.  ELAINE 

restricted.  This  is  wisdom  after  the  event.  In 
1866  Mr.  Elaine's  colleagues  were  no  wiser  than 
he  was. 

The  Reconstruction  act  was  passed  at  the 
second  session  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress. 
Mr.  Elaine's  part  in  that  legislation  was  most 
important,  although  he  intervened  but  infre 
quently  in  the  debate.  Only  a  week  after  the 
assembling  of  Congress,  on  the  10th  of  Decem 
ber,  1866,  he  took  occasion  to  make  a  speech 
upon  the  significance  of  the  then  recent  elections. 
The  purport  of  it  all  was  that  the  people  of  the 
North  had  pronounced  in  favor  of  a  requirement 
of  negro  suffrage  —  of  manhood  suffrage  —  in 
the  Southern  states,  as  a  prerequisite  to  their 
readmission  to  representation  in  Congress.  He 
held  then,  and  he  adhered  to  the  opinion  when 
he  wrote  his  "  Twenty  Years  of  Congress,"  *  that 
if  the  states  of  the  South  had  promptly  and  with 
good  grace  accepted  the  Fourteenth  Amendment, 
there  was  not  in  Congress  a  body  of  radicals 
strong  enough  to  have  excluded  their  senators  and 
representatives  from  their  seats.  Tennessee 
accepted  the  amendment  and  was  readmitted. 
The  other  states  showed  a  disposition  which 
intensified  the  radicalism  of  the  North.  In  Mr. 
Elaine's  view  the  requirement  of  negro  suffrage, 
originally  unpopular  throughout  the  North, 
1  Begun  1882;  finished  1885. 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  81 

gained  ground  rapidly;  and  although  when 
Congress  met  the  political  leaders  were  still  op 
posed,  he  believed  that  the  people  at  large  were 
heartily  in  favor  of  it. 

Events  were  rapidly  converting  the  leaders  to 
the  same  way  of  thinking.  Elections  in  the  South 
were  all  carried  by  the  Democrats,  except  in  the 
States  of  West  Virginia  and  Missouri.  The  men 
elected  to  the  legislatures  were  almost  all  former 
officers  of  the  Confederate  army,  and  attended 
the  sessions  in  their  old  uniforms.  The  legisla 
tures  passed  laws  which,  had  they  been  enforced, 
would  have  made  the  freedom  of  the  colored 
people  worse  than  a  mockery.  One  by  one  the 
states  rejected  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  In 
all  the  ten  legislatures  only  thirty-three  votes 
were  given  for  ratification.1  Considering  the  tem 
per  of  the  Northern  people,  and  their  not  unnatu 
ral  feeling  that  they,  and  not  the  Southern  people, 
had  the  right  to  prescribe  the  terms  of  recon 
struction,  it  is  not  surprising  that  when  the  offer 
implied  by  the  readmission  of  Tennessee  was  re 
jected,  the  hearts  of  the  victors  were  hardened. 

At  all  events  such  was  the  result.  The  Recon 
struction  Committee  first  reported  a  bill  quite 

1  "The  last  one  of  the  sinful  ten  has  at  last,  with  contempt 
and  scorn,  flung  back  in  our  teeth  the  magnanimous  offer  of  a 
generous  nation."  —  Speech  of  James  A.  Garfield,  Congres 
sional  Globe,  39th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  p.  1104. 


82  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

in  accordance  with  Mr.  Elaine's  view  as  to  the 
prevailing  disposition  of  the  Republican  majority. 
It  was  discussed  in  set  speeches  by  several  mem 
bers  at  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress,  in  the  summer  of  1866.  The  consideration 
of  it  was  resumed  at  the  second  session  after  the 
holiday  season,  in  1867.  Many  members  had  coun 
ter-propositions,  Mr.  Stevens  in  particular,  with 
a  radical  measure  based  upon  his  peculiar  theory 
as  to  the  constitutional  result  of  the  war.  Against 
his  strong  opposition  the  bill  was  recommitted  to 
the  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  which  soon 
reported  back  a  bill  providing  for  the  military 
government  of  the  states  then  lately  in  rebellion. 
It  declared  null  and  void  any  and  all  legislative 
and  judicial  proceedings  intended  to  interfere  with 
or  impede  the  officers  placed  in  charge  of  those 
states.  It  held  out  no  promise  whatever  that 
civil  government  should  ever  be  restored,  and 
offered  no  opportunity  to  the  people  of  the  states 
to  take  steps  to  organize  such  a  government. 

After  the  debate  upon  this  bill  had  proceeded 
several  days,  Mr.  Elaine  took  the  floor,  called 
attention  to  the  absence  of  all  assurance  to  the 
people  of  the  South  that  they  might  resume  their 
old  relations  to  the  Union  on  any  conditions,  and 
appealed  to  Mr.  Stevens  to  permit  the  House  to 
vote  upon  an  amendment  which  he  had  pre 
pared.  The  new  section  which  he  proposed  vir- 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  83 

tually  asserted  that  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
would  be  effectively  ratified  by  the  legislatures 
of  three  fourths  of  the  states  represented  in 
Congress.  It  provided  that  when  a  state  had 
ratified  the  amendment,  had  conformed  its  con 
stitution  and  laws  thereto,  had  established 
impartial  manhood  suffrage,  had  ratified  the 
amended  state  constitution  by  popular  vote,  and 
had  obtained  the  approval  of  the  constitution 
by  Congress,  it  should  become  entitled  to  repre 
sentation.  Mr.  Stevens  would  not  consent  to 
admit  the  amendment.  Mr.  Blaine  was  strongly 
supported  in  his  movement  by  General  Schenck 
and  Judge  Bingham  of  Ohio,  and  finally  con 
trived  to  get  a  vote  upon  his  proposition  by  mak 
ing  a  motion  to  commit  the  bill  to  the  Committee 
on  the  Judiciary  with  instructions  to  incorporate 
in  it  the  section  setting  forth  the  conditions  of 
reconstruction.  Nearly  a  half  of  the  Republicans 
and  a  third  of  the  Democrats  supported  the 
motion,  but  Mr.  Stevens  was  too  strong  in  his 
leadership,  and  the  proposition  was  rejected. 

In  the  Senate  the  principle  of  the  Blaine 
amendment  was  incorporated  in  the  substitute 
of  Senator  Sherman,  which  was  adopted  by  that 
body;  and  after  an  attempt  to  reconcile  the  dif 
ferences  between  the  two  houses  by  a  committee 
of  conference,  which  was  abandoned  through 
fear  of  a  "  pocket  veto  "  of  the  bill,  an  agreement 


84  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

was  patched  up,  and  the  bill  went  to  the  President 
just  early  enough  to  force  him  either  to  sign  it  or 
to  return  it  to  the  House  with  his  objections.  The 
bill  reached  the  House  with  the  veto  message  on 
the  last  day  of  the  session,  and  it  was  by  a  piece 
of  parliamentary  strategy  conceived  by  Mr. 
Blaine  that  Congress  was  enabled  to  pass  the  bill 
over  the  veto.  Before  the  beginning  of  the  daily 
session  he  consulted  Mr.  Speaker  Colfax  and 
inquired  what  would  be  his  ruling  as  to  the  effect 
of  a  motion  "  that  the  rules  be  suspended,  so  that 
the  House  shall  immediately  proceed  to  vote  on 
the  question,  as  required  by  the  Constitution," 
whether  the  bill  should  be  passed  over  the  veto. 
The  Speaker's  answer  was  satisfactory,  and  ac 
cordingly,  when  Mr.  Blaine  made  the  motion,  the 
ruling  was  that  the  motion  was  not  debatable 
and  that  while  it  was  pending  no  other  motion 
could  be  interposed  to  prevent  a  decision  upon 
it.  An  appeal  from  the  Speaker's  decision  was 
supported  by  four  members  only.  Every  dilatory 
motion  was  thus  ruled  out  of  order,  the  bill  was 
passed  by  the  constitutional  majority  of  two 
thirds,  and  became  a  law  when,  a  few  hours  later, 
the  Senate  also  passed  it  over  the  President's  veto. 
The  fall  of  the  gavel  in  the  hand  of  the  Speaker 
announcing  the  close  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Con 
gress  was  followed,  with  scarcely  a  pause,  by  the 
sound  of  the  same  instrument  in  the  hand  of  the 


SIX  YEAKS  IN  CONGRESS  85 

clerk,  calling  to  order  the  members-elect  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  in  the  Fortieth  Con 
gress.  So  profound  was  the  distrust  of  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  part  of  the  Republicans  that  they  did 
not  deem  it  safe  to  relax,  save  for  brief  intervals, 
the  close  watch  of  Congress  upon  his  proceed 
ings.  Intending  to  make  the  session  practically 
continuous  from  March  until  the  usual  time  of 
meeting  in  December,  they  passed  an  act  fixing 
the  4th  of  March  as  the  day  for  the  beginning 
of  the  first  session  of  each  Congress.  Political 
excitement  was  hardly  ever,  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  more  intense  than  it  was  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1867,  the  fateful  day  of  the  passage 
of  the  Reconstruction  Act  over  President  John 
son's  veto.  The  opposition  had  almost  disap 
peared  from  both  houses  of  Congress.  Prior  to 
the  admission  of  senators  from  the  reconstructed 
states,  the  "loyal"  states  and  Tennessee  were 
represented  by  forty -two  Republicans,  nine 
Democrats,  and  three  administration  Republi 
cans;  and  the  number  of  opposition  senators 
was  not  increased  when  the  South  was  again 
represented.  In  the  House,  on  the  election  of 
Speaker,  Mr.  Colfax  received  more  than  four 
fifths  of  all  the  votes  given.  Moreover,  the  radical 
element  of  the  Republican  party  was  apparently 
in  control,  and,  as  the  event  proved,  was  actually 
so.  Impeachment  was  in  the  air. 


86  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

Mr.  Elaine  was  not  in  favor  of  impeachment. 
Although  he  ultimately  yielded  his  judgment,  as 
did  every  other  Republican  in  the  House  who  op 
posed  the  step,  yet  his  course  at  the  time  and  his 
comments  upon  the  matter  in  his  "  Twenty  Years 
of  Congress"  show  that  he  did  so  most  reluc 
tantly.  Immediately  after  the  passage  of  the 
supplementary  Reconstruction  Act,  on  the  23d  of 
March,  Mr.  Elaine  offered  a  privileged  resolution 
providing  for  the  adjournment  of  the  House,  with 
the  consent  of  the  Senate,  from  March  26  until 
November  11.  The  idea  was  that  the  Senate 
should  remain  in  continuous  session,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  President  from  making  wholesale 
removals  of  officers  and  from  filling  the  places 
with  persons  of  his  own  appointment.  Under  the 
Constitution  neither  branch  of  Congress  can 
adjourn  for  more  than  three  days  without  the 
consent  of  the  other. 

It  was  quickly  seen  that  the  decision  of  the 
question  on  Mr.  Elaine's  resolution  involved  a 
contest  between  the  radicals  and  the  conserva 
tives,  between  the  impeachers  and  those  who 
were  opposed  to  the  movement.  General  Butler 
led  off  in  opposition  to  the  resolution,  and  inti 
mated  plainly  his  belief  that  the  President  should 
be  impeached.  Mr.  Elaine  replied  vigorously, 
denied  that  there  was  any  strong  movement  out 
side  of  Congress  in  favor  of  impeachment,  and 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  87 

challenged  General  Butler  to  name  twenty-five 
of  the  nearly  two  thousand  Republican  papers  in 
the  country  which  regarded  "the  impeachment 
movement  as  one  seriously  to  be  undertaken  on 
the  part  of  Congress  at  this  time."  Thaddeus 
Stevens  tried  to  break  the  force  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
argument  by  intimating,  on  the  strength  of  a 
statement  which  he  said  he  had  heard  Mr.  Elaine 
make,  to  the  effect  that  there  ought  to  be  no  im 
peachment  which  would  result  in  making  Senator 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  the  acting  President,  that  Mr. 
Elaine  would  have  taken  a  different  position  if 
Senator  Fessenden,  of  Maine,  instead  of  Senator 
Wade,  had  been  chosen  president  pro  tempore 
of  the  Senate,  and  thus  placed  next  in  succes 
sion  to  the  presidency. 

Mr.  Elaine,  supported  by  all  the  Democrats 
and  by  a  considerable  minority  of  Republicans, 
was  successful  in  the  preliminary  votes  upon  his 
resolution;  but  the  radicals  filibustered,  suc 
ceeded  in  postponing  the  final  vote,  and  ulti 
mately  defeated  the  measure.  Nevertheless  Con 
gress  took  two  long  recesses  during  the  summer 
and  autumn,  and  the  issue  of  impeachment  was 
not  fairly  encountered  until  the  second  session, 
which  began  in  December.  On  the  fourth  day  of 
that  session  the  report  made  by  Mr.  Boutwell, 
of  Massachusetts,  toward  the  close  of  the  first 
session,  was  taken  up.  Mr.  Elaine  did  not  partici- 


88  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

pate  in  the  debate,  but  when  the  vote  was  taken 
he  was  one  of  the  108  voting  no.  The  affirmative 
consisted  of  57  Republicans,  the  negative  of  66 
Republicans  and  42  Democrats.  But  during  the 
ensuing  session  the  President  affronted  the  Re 
publicans  deeply  by  his  attempt  to  remove  Secre 
tary  Stanton.  The  radicals  took  advantage  of  the 
resentment  which  this  act  occasioned,  and  the 
conservatives  were  swept  off  their  feet.  The 
House  acted  in  hot  haste,  and,  by  a  strict  party 
vote,  committed  itself  irrevocably  to  the  trial  of 
the  President.  No  Republican  and  no  Demo 
crat  separated  himself  from  his  party  on  the  final 
issue.  Moreover,  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same, 
strictness  was  observed  in  all  the  subsequent 
proceedings  on  the  part  of  the  House  —  in  the 
choice  of  managers  and  in  the  adoption  of  the 
articles  of  impeachment.  Mr.  Blaine  at  no  time 
during  any  of  these  proceedings  spoke  a  word  in 
the  House  on  the  general  subject  of  impeach 
ment.  He  voted,  as  did  the  rest,  with  his  party.  If 
he  even  then  regarded  the  movement  as  a  political 
mistake,  as  is  more  than  probable,  he  did  not 
deem  it  wise  to  introduce  an  element  of  discord 
in  the  party  ranks,  when  he  was  powerless  to  per 
suade  his  fellow  Republicans  to  retreat  from  the 
position  they  had  taken. 

But  in  his  "  Twenty  Years  of  Congress  "he  has 
given  the  deliberate  judgment  of  his  later  years 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  89 

in  a  passage  of  characteristic  terseness,  force, 
and  felicity  of  expression.  He  recapitulates  the 
acts  of  a  political  nature  which  justly  stirred  the 
resentment  of  those  who  had  made  Johnson  next 
in  succession  to  the  presidency,  all  of  which 
tended  to  restore  to  those  who  had  been  in  arms 
against  the  government,  and  even  to  increase, 
their  political  control  over  the  states  which  had 
declared  their  secession  from  the  Union;  and 
which  would  have  abandoned  the  freedmen  to 
the  operation  of  laws  that  would  have  made  their 
nominal  freedom  a  mockery.  Mr.  Blaine  says 
that  if  the  President  could  have  been  legally  and 
constitutionally  impeached  for  these  offences  he 
should  not  have  been  allowed  to  hold  his  office 
for  an  hour  beyond  the  time  required  for  a  fair 
trial.  Since  this  was  impossible,  a  series  of  accu 
sations  was  made  against  him  in  none  of  which 
was  there  even  a  hint  of  the  real  ground  of  hos 
tility  to  him.  Thus  the  President  "was  im 
peached  for  one  series  of  misdemeanors  and 
tried  for  another  series."  The  chief  accusation 
was  a  violation  of  the  Tenure  of  Office  Act  1  in 
the  attempted  removal  of  Secretary  Stanton. 

1  "A  statute  that  never  ought  to  have  been  enacted,  as  was 
practically  confessed  by  its  framers  when,  within  less  than  a 
year  after  the  impeachment  trial  had  closed,  they  modified 
its  provisions  by  taking  away  their  most  offensive  features."  — 
Twenty  Years  of  Congress,  vol.  ii.  p.  378. 


90  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

Mr.  Blaine  indicates  clearly  that  he  regards  as  of 
great  force  the  point  made  by  Judge  Curtis,  of 
the  President's  counsel,  that  Secretary  Stanton 
was  not  protected  from  removal  by  the  Tenure 
of  Office  Act.  The  language  of  that  act  provided 
that  the  cabinet  officers  should  hold  their  offices 
"for  and  during  the  term  of  the  President  by 
whom  they  may  have  been  appointed  and  for 
one  month  thereafter,  subject  to  removal  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate."  In 
asmuch  as  Mr.  Stanton  had  been  appointed  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  during  his  first  term,  Judge  Curtis 
held  that  he  might,  under  the  law,  have  been 
removed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  after  the  4th  of  April, 
1865.  He  was  never  appointed  by  Mr.  John 
son  at  all.  Mr.  Blaine  further  asks,  with  keen 
analysis  of  the  situation,  if  any  candid  man  sup 
poses  that  President  Johnson's  course  with  re 
spect  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  if  pursued  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  General  Grant,  or  any  other  president 
in  harmony  with  his  party  in  Congress,  "  would 
have  been  followed  by  impeachment,  or  by  cen 
sure,  or  even  by  dissent."  Furthermore  he  takes 
pains  to  defend  the  integrity  and  the  purity  of 
motive  of  those  Republican  senators  who  sepa 
rated  themselves  from  their  party  associates  and 
declared  the  President  not  guilty. 

The  impeachment  campaign,  from  the  original 
motion  of  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  at  the  beginning 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  91 

of  the  first  session  of  the  Fortieth  Congress,  to  the 
final  adjournment  of  the  Senate  sitting  as  a  court 
of  impeachment,  extended  over  more  than  a 
year.  As  has  been  remarked  already,  Mr.  Elaine's 
share  in  it  was  of  the  slightest  character.  But  he 
found  ample  opportunity  for  activity  in  debate 
upon  other  questions.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Congress  he  was  made  by  the  Speaker  a  member 
of  the  Committee  on  Rules,  of  which  the  Speaker 
himself  is  chairman,  one  of  the  most  select  and 
important  committees  of  the  House.  It  was  a 
distinct  recognition  of  his  skill  as  a  parliamen 
tarian.  He  was  also  placed  fourth  upon  another 
important  committee,  Appropriations,  of  which 
Thaddeus  Stevens  was  chairman,  —  a  committee 
which  at  that  time  reported  and  had  charge  of 
all  appropriation  bills. 

Soon  after  the  first  recess  of  Congress  began,  in 
the  spring  of  1867,  Mr.  Elaine  sailed  for  Europe, 
in  company  with  Justin  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont, 
who  had  just  completed  a  service  of  twelve  years 
in  the  House,  and  had  begun  his  long  term  of 
more  than  thirty  years  in  the  Senate.  The  two 
men  were  congenial,  and  each  of  them  after  their 
return  testified  warmly  to  the  companionable 
qualities  of  the  other.  By  carefully  planning 
their  itinerary  they  were  able  to  see  hastily 
much  more  than  tourists  can  usually  see;  and 
the  letters  which  they  took  with  them  and  their 


92  JAMES  G.  BLAINE 

own  standing  in  the  public  life  of  the  country,  not 
only  secured  tkeir  introduction  to  persons  of  high 
position  in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  but 
procured  them  entree  to  places  not  open  to  all. 
Upon  their  visit  to  the  British  House  of  Com 
mons  they  were  admitted  to  seats  in  the  Peers' 
gallery.  They  saw  both  Houses  of  Parliament 
under  peculiarly  favorable  conditions,  and  were 
highly  honored  when  they  visited  the  French 
Corps  Legislatif  ;  thus  they  had  an  admirable 
opportunity  to  study  parliamentary  proceedings 
abroad,  and  to  compare  home  and  foreign  meth 
ods.  Save  for  such  favoring  circumstances  in  a 
few  of  the  places  they  visited,  the  European  trip 
did  not  differ  from  that  of  thousands  of  other 
Americans.  The  tour  ended  about  the  first  of 
September.  The  summer  session  of  Congress 
had  been  held  in  their  absence,  and  the  Senate 
and  House  did  not  reassemble  until  November  21. 
I/  Hardly  less  perplexing  than  the  problems 
which  are  classed  under  the  general  head  of 
Reconstruction  were  those  of  Finance.  From  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  until  the  reestablishment 
of  the  gold  standard  by  the  act  of  1898,  there  was 
agitation,  frequently  renewed,  for  the  adoption 
of  measures  supposedly  in  the  interest  of  debtors, 
and  particularly  in  the  interest  of  the  greatest 
debtor,  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
Payment  of  the  bonds  in  greenbacks,  an  inflation 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  93 

of  the  irredeemable  paper  money,  and  free  coin 
age  of  silver,  were  the  chief  measures  which 
were  urged  by  public  men  of  great  prominence 
and  which  attracted  a  large  measure  of  public 
support.  President  Johnson  himself  made  the 
amazing  suggestion  1  that  in  view  of  the  large 
returns  the  bondholders  had  already  received 
upon  their  capital,  "it  would  seem  but  just  and 
equitable  that  the  six  per  cent,  interest  now  paid 
by  the  Government  should  be  applied  to  the 
reduction  of  the  principal  in  semiannual  install 
ments,  which  in  sixteen  years  and  eight  months 
would  liquidate  the  entire  national  debt."  Judge 
Kelley's  proposition  for  the  issue  of  interconverti 
ble  bonds,  —  bonds  "  payable  "  in  greenbacks 
and  greenbacks  convertible  into  bonds,  but 
neither  bonds  nor  greenbacks  redeemable  in 
coin;  the  opposition  to  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments ;  the  campaign  waged  for  the  remone- 
tization  of  the  silver  dollar;  prolonged  efforts 
to  sanction  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  the  ratio 
of  sixteen  to  one ;  and  the  resistance  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  gold  standard,  —  all  these  were 
episodes  in  the  grand  struggle.  In  all  of  them 
except  the  last,  in  all  so  long  as  he  lived,  Mr. 
Blaine  bore  a  conspicuous  part;  and  in  all  but 
one  of  the  contests  in  which  he  was  engaged  he 
stood  firmly  and  immovably  on  the  side  of  what 
1  Fourth  Annual  Message,  December  9,  1868. 


94  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

may  be  termed,  for  want  of  a  better  phrase,  hard 
money. 

In  the  autumn  of  1867  George  H.  Pendleton, 
of  Ohio,  and  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  of  Massachu 
setts,  —  two  men  who  stood  in  positions  of  large 
political  authority  in  their  respective  parties,  — 
startled  the  country  by  advocating  a  proposition, 
not  then  made  for  the  first  time,  that  the  five- 
twenty  bonds  of  the  United  States  were  legally 
redeemable  in  paper  money,  The  suggestion 
was  a  plausible  one,  inasmuch  as  the  payment  of 
the  interest  upon  those  bonds  in  coin  was  stipu 
lated  in  the  act  for  their  issue,  whereas  there  was 
no  mention  therein  of  the  medium  in  which  the 
principal  was  to  be  paid.  The  fact  that  the  sub 
sequent  act,  under  which  the  ten-forty  bonds 
were  issued,  specifically  provided  for  the  payment 
of  both  principal  and  interest  in  coin,  lent  color 
to  the  proposition  that  Congress  intended,  by  its 
silence  on  the  point,  to  leave  the  question  open  as 
to  the  discharge  of  the  principal  of  the  five-twen 
ties.  These  and  other  arguments  were  skillfully 
presented  by  General  Butler,  to  the  great  disturb 
ance  of  business  and  the  distress  of  most  of  his 
party  friends.  Mr.  Pendleton's  attitude  upon  the 
question  was  less  important  than  General  But 
ler's,  simply  because  it  was  assumed  that  the 
Democratic  party  would  be  unable  to  reach  a  posi 
tion  where  it  could  carry  its  policies  into  execution. 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  95 

To  Mr.  Elaine  belongs  the  credit  of  having 
made  in  Congress  the  earliest  and  the  most  thor 
ough  answer  to  General  Butler's  thesis.  At  the 
autumn  session  in  1867  he  took  the  floor,  and  in 
a  masterly  speech  covered  the  whole  ground  of 
the  argument  in  favor  of  an  honest  discharge  of 
the  obligations  of  the  government.  In  a  historical 
review  of  the  acts  providing  for  the  creation  of 
the  funded  debt  during  the  Civil  War,  he  showed 
that  the  proceeds  of  the  duties  on  imports,  for 
which  gold  only  was  receivable,  were  specifically 
appropriated  to  the  payment  of  interest  on  the 
bonds  and  to  the  purchase  or  payment  of  the 
principal,  through  the  machinery  of  a  sinking 
fund;  that  in  all  the  debates,  in  both  houses  of 
Congress,  it  was  assumed  and  stated  repeatedly 
that  the  principal  was  payable  in  coin;  that  the 
only  reason  for  the  omission  of  a  clause  in  the 
bill  so  providing,  was  that  it  had  been  the  uniform 
practice  of  the  government  from  the  beginning 
to  pay  in  coin;  that  the  clause  in  the  ten-forty 
act  was  inserted  because  Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
who  asserted  when  the  five-twenty  act  was  pend 
ing  that  the  bonds  to  be  issued  were  payable  in 
gold,  had  changed  his  mind  and  intimated  that 
they  might  be  redeemed  with  legal  tender  notes; 
and  that  every  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had 
taken  the  view  that  gold  alone  was  available  for 
the  payment,  which  view,  although  frequently, 


96  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

plainly,  and  publicly  expressed,  had  never  been 
repudiated  by  Congress. 

Mr.  Elaine  then  turned  to  the  practical  side  of 
the  question.  The  five-twenty  bonds  could  not 
be  paid  in  greenbacks  without  an  almost  limitless 
issue  of  paper  money,  constantly  depreciating 
as  the  amount  increased.  He  ridiculed  the  idea 
that  funds  to  pay  the  bonds  could  be  obtained 
by  a  new  issue  of  currency  bonds.  Government 
"  would  be  placed  in  an  awkward  attitude  when 
it  should  enter  the  money  market  to  negotiate  a 
loan  the  avails  of  which  were  to  be  devoted  to 
breaking  faith  with  those  who  already  held  its 
most  sacred  obligations."  He  urged  that  the  true 
remedy  for  the  existing  financial  situation  was 
to  adopt  measures  for  a  steady  approach  to  specie 
payments,  and  for  that  purpose  to  effect  an  im 
mediate  and  a  large  reduction  of  expenditure, 
by  reducing  the  army  by  one  half,  by  a  corre 
sponding  curtailment  of  the  navy,  and  by  stop 
ping  "innumerable  leaks  and  gaps  and  loose 
ends."  With  a  readjusted  revenue  system,  a  con 
siderable  sum  could  be  made  available  for  the 
reduction  of  the  debt.  He  pleaded  for  a  policy 
devoid  of  "  repudiation  in  any  form,  either  open 
or  covert,  avowed  or  indirect,  but  with  every 
obligation  of  the  government  fulfilled  and  dis 
charged  in  its  exact  letter  and  in  its  generous 
spirit.  ...  I  am  sure,"  he  said  in  conclusion, 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  97 

"that  in  the  peace  whicn  our  arms  have  con 
quered  we  shall  not  dishonor  ourselves  by  with 
holding  from  any  public  creditor  a  dollar  that  we 
promised  to  pay  him,  nor  seek  by  cunning  con 
struction  and  clever  afterthought  to  evade  or 
escape  the  full  responsibility  of  our  national  in 
debtedness.  It  will  doubtless  cost  us  a  vast  sum 
to  pay  that  indebtedness,  but  it  would  cost  us 
incalculably  more  not  to  pay  it." 

Later  in  the  session,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1868, 
Mr.  Blaine  delivered  a  second  speech  upon  the 
same  subject,  in  which  he  elaborated  some  of  his 
earlier  points,  answered  arguments  brought  for 
ward  by  advocates  of  payment  in  greenbacks, 
and  again  urged  the  adoption  of  measures  to 
make  the  greenbacks  equal  in  value  to  gold, 
when  the  motive  to  pay  in  paper  and  the  objec 
tion  to  doing  so  would  equally  disappear.  These 
were  not  his  only  contributions  during  that  ses 
sion  to  the  cause  of  honorable  and  sane  finance, 
for  on  June  23  he  made  a  third  speech  in  which 
he  examined  with  merciless  analysis  the  kindred 
proposition  to  tax  the  bonds  of  the  United  States, 
showed  the  dishonorable  character  of  the  sug 
gestion,  and  pointed  out  the  disastrous  results 
that  would  be  certain  to  follow  its  adoption.  He 
urged  an  adherence  "to  the  steady,  straightfor 
ward  course  dictated  alike  by  good  policy  and 
good  faith."  From  both  these  schemes,  which 


98  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

would  have  been  ruinous  to  the  credit  of  the 
government,  the  country  was  saved  by  the  reso 
lute  action  of  the  Republicans,  and  by  the  first 
act  signed  by  President  Grant,  "  to  protect  the 
credit  of  the  United  States." 

As  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Appropria 
tions  Mr.  Blaine  took  charge  of  some  of  the  most 
important  appropriation  bills,  notably  those  for 
the  army  and  navy.  He  was  an  ardent  advocate 
of  retrenchment,  as  he  said  in  a  passage  which 
has  already  been  quoted ;  and  in  these  bills  he  had 
an  opportunity  to  defend  the  policy  of  economy 
against  attack  from  two  distinct  quarters.  The 
former  volunteer  officers  of  the  Union  army,  of 
whom  there  were  several  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  were,  if  not  hostile,  at  least  not  over 
friendly  to  the  regular  army  and  to  West  Point. 
They  were  led  by  General  Logan.  The  Demo 
crats  felt  bound,  naturally,  to  fulfil  the  function 
of  an  opposition,  to  oppose,  and  they  joined  with 
General  Logan  to  defeat  Mr.  Blaine  and  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations.  The  combination 
was  so  far  successful  that  Mr.  Blaine  was  forced 
to  yield  to  a  compromise  favorable  to  the  promo 
tion  of  men  from  the  ranks,  and  less  favorable 
to  the  graduates  of  the  Military  Academy.  But 
the  policy  of  economy  was  triumphant. 

The  most  important  public  utterance  of  Mr. 
Blaine  during  the  third  and  last  session  of  the 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  99 

Fortieth  Congress  —  for  during  that  session  he 
rarely  was  heard  save  upon  questions  arising 
when  appropriation  bills  which  he  was  manag 
ing  were  under  discussion  —  was  a  speech  on 
national  affairs,  delivered  on  December  10,  1868, 
on  the  fourth  day  of  the  session,  a  month  after 
the  election  of  General  Grant.  It  was  a  broad 
and  comprehensive  review  of  the  consequences 
to  be  anticipated  from  the  Republican  victory. 
His  conclusions  as  to  some  points  have  been  so 
amply  vindicated  that  readers  of  the  speech,  who 
did  not  pass  through  the  political  perils  of  the 
time,  might  almost  reasonably  regard  them  as 
commonplaces.  In  other  respects  he  was  alto 
gether  too  optimistic.  A  battle  had  been  won,  and 
final  victory  was  presaged ;  but  the  war  was  not 
over;  as  to  some  of  the  issues  it  is  not  over  yet. 
For  example :  "  The  election  of  1868  is  the  last  in 
which  the  lately  rebellious  section,  even  if  it  could 
be  wholly  controlled  by  rebels,  will  have  sufficient 
power  in  the  electoral  vote  of  the  country  to  make 
it  the  object  either  of  hope  or  of  fear  on  the  part 
of  political  organizations  striving  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  nation."  He  could  not  have  foreseen 
that  only  eight  years  thereafter,  in  the  election 
of  General  Grant's  immediate  successor,  the  vote 
of  the  solid  South  was  to  be  the  object  of  both 
hope  and  fear;  that  the  party  to  which  he  be 
longed  was  to  be  saved  from  defeat  by  an  extra- 


100  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

constitutional  measure  to  which  he,  as  a  senator, 
would  not  agree;  and  that  the  united  electoral 
vote  of  the  South  was  to  be,  to  the  end  of  the  cen 
tury  and  beyond  it,  the  hope  and  reliance  of  one 
of  the  great  political  organizations.  We  will  not 
quote  Mr.  Elaine's  exact  language,  for  "rebel" 
and  " loyal"  and  other  words  in  use  at  that  time 
have  been  dropped  from  the  vocabulary  of  poli 
tics  ;  but  his  hopeful  prophecy  that  the  ten  States 
of  the  Confederacy,  "viewed  as  one  compact 
power,"  would  no  longer  be  strong  enough  to 
tempt  any  party  to  an  alliance  with  them,  has, 
in  its  essence,  been  conspicuously  falsified. 

So,  too,  his  judgment  that  "it  is  too  late  to 
discuss  negro  suffrage;  for  having  been  granted 
it  is  impossible  to  recall  it ; "  and  his  confidence 
that  "the  election  of  General  Grant  has  settled 
the  financial  question."  The  first  of  these  ques 
tions  is  still  an  open  one.  As  for  the  other  it 
was  not  settled  until  more  than  thirty  years 
had  elapsed,  if  it  is  settled  now.  Who  can  tell  ? 
But  it  was  true,  and  has  become  increasingly 
evident  as  the  years  have  passed,  that  beginning 
with  that  era  there  has  come  "  a  higher  standard 
of  American  citizenship  —  with  more  dignity 
and  character  to  the  name  abroad  and  more 
assured  liberty  and  security  attaching  to  it  at 
home;"  that  our  diplomacy  has  been  "rescued 
from  the  subservient  tone  by  which  we  have  so 


SIX  YEARS  IN  CONGRESS  101 

often  been  humiliated  in  our  own  eyes,  and  in  the 
eyes  of  Europe."  In  the  concluding  sentence  of 
this  fine  speech,  fine  in  spite  of  its  too  confident 
optimism,  occurs  a  passage  which  shows  that 
he  looked  forward  without  misgiving  to  one  class 
of  events  that  were  then  anticipated  as  probabili 
ties  by  no  one,  but  that  have  since  come  to  pass. 
"Whatever,  therefore,"  he  said,  "may  lie  before 
us  in  the  untrodden  and  often  beclouded  path 
of  the  future,  —  whether  it  be  financial  embar 
rassment,  or  domestic  trouble  of  another  and 
more  serious  type,  or  misunderstandings  with 
foreign  nations,  or  the  extension  of  our  flag  and 
our  sovereignty  over  insular  or  continental  pos 
sessions,  North  or  South,  that  fate  or  fortune 
may  peacefully  offer  to  our  ambition,  —  let  us 
believe  with  all  confidence  that  General  Grant's 
administration  will  meet  every  exigency  with  the 
courage,  the  ability,  and  the  conscience  which 
American  nationality  and  Christian  civilization 
demand."  In  all  probability  Mr.  Elaine  had  in 
mind  both  Hawaii  and  Cuba  when  he  spoke  of 
insular  possessions.  But  whether  his  intention 
was  specific  or  merely  general,  the  utterance  was 
a  remarkable  one  for  that  time.  It  was  only  a 
short  time  before  the  question  was  to  be  pre 
sented  to  the  American  people  in  a  form  that 
concerned  neither  the  island  kingdom  in  the  Pa 
cific,  nor  the  Pearl  of  the  Antilles  at  the  mouth 


102  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  —  when  President  Grant 
developed  his  Santo  Domingo  policy. 

The  Fortieth  Congress  was  the  last  in  which 
Mr.  Elaine  sat  as  a  member  of  the  majority 
party,  on  the  floor.  When  next  he  was  to  take  an 
active  part  in  debate,  it  was  to  be  as  the  bold  and 
dashing  leader  of  the  opposition.  It  may  be  well 
therefore  to  consider  briefly  the  quality  of  his 
service  as  a  private  member.  The  illustrations 
already  given  will  have  exhibited  his  political 
sagacity,  and  to  a  certain  extent  the  independ 
ence  of  his  action.  Numerous  examples  could 
be  given  of  his  fairness  as  a  political  opponent. 
When  the  Democrats  wished  to  enter  upon  the 
journal  of  the  House  their  protest  against  the 
articles  of  the  impeachment  of  the  President, 
couched  in  excessively  offensive  language,  Mr. 
Elaine  alone  of  the  Republicans  voted  to  yield  to 
their  demand.  On  one  occasion  his  tongue  be 
trayed  him  into  the  use  of  the  term  "copper 
head,"  then  a  vituperative  epithet  applied  to 
Northern  sympathizers  with  the  South.  When 
the  word  was  objected  to  as  unparliamentary, 
Mr.  Elaine  quickly  withdrew  it.  The  Speaker 
having  ruled  that  the  word  was  permissible,  not 
having  been  applied  to  a  member  of  the  House, 
Mr.  Elaine  insisted  on  recalling  it.  "  I  did  not 
withdraw  the  word  as  a  question  of  order,"  he 
said.  "  I  could  have  told  the  gentleman  that  he 


SIX   YEARS   IN    CONGRESS  103 

had  made  no  point  of  order.  As  a  question  of  taste 
I  confess  that  I  have  transgressed.  It  was  in  bad 
taste,  as  it  always  is,  to  use  offensive  political 
epithets  in  debate."  He  opposed  the  consider 
ation  of  the  bill  making  land  grants  to  Southern 
railroads  until  the  senators  and  representatives 
from  those  states  should  have  taken  their  seats. 
He  refused  to  vote  to  seat  the  Republican  con 
testant  of  a  seat  in  the  House  whose  case  rested 
upon  the  fact  that  the  person  elected  had  been 
"  disloyal."  He  declared  that  he  was  "  not  going 
to  turn  around  and,  with  this  House,  elect  a  man 
to  represent  that  district.  ...  If  there  were  any 
thing  decided  by  the  election  in  that  district  of 
Kentucky  it  is  that  they  did  not  want  Mr.  Smith 
to  represent  them."  Again,  when  a  pending  bill 
proposed  to  exclude  the  Southern  States  from  the 
privilege  of  sending  cadets  to  West  Point,  he  op 
posed  the  measure  warmly.  He  said  that  he  did 
not  believe  in  punishing  children  in  the  rebel 
states. 

It  is  much  easier  to  cite  such  examples  of  his 
fairness  than  it  is  to  illustrate  his  readiness  and 
resourcefulness  in  debate.  In  hundreds  of  cases 
in  the  course  of  his  parliamentary  life,  when  he 
was  pitted  against  political  opponents,  or  against 
his  seniors  in  his  own  party,  he  rarely  came  off 
second  best.  His  manner,  whether  in  exposition 
of  a  measure  which  he  had  in  charge,  or  in  de- 


104  JAMES  G.  ELAINE 

fending  its  provisions  against  attack,  or  in  an 
swering  the  questions  of  friendly  inquirers,  was 
clear,  terse,  and  impressive.  In  those  times  mem 
bers  were  not  required  to  pass  a  long  novitiate 
before  they  were  suffered  to  become  leaders.  In 
six  years  Mr.  Blaine  had  acquired  a  position  of 
prominence  enjoyed  by  few  of  his  fellow  mem 
bers,  even  of  those  much  older  in  the  service. 
To  be  sure,  real  leaders  of  men  are  not  restricted 
by  the  rules  whicli  keep  back  those  who  come  to 
the  front  by  a  system  of  regular  promotion,  and 
undoubtedly  Mr.  Blaine  would  have  been  a  leader 
in  any  period  of  our  political  history. 


SPEAKER 

MR.  SPEAKER  COLFAX  was  elected  Vice-President 
on  the  ticket  with  General  Grant,  in  1868.  His 
prospective  retirement  from  the  chair  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  gave  opportunity  to 
Mr.  Blaine  to  aspire  to  a  position  for  which  both 
his  natural  faculties  and  his  parliamentary  train 
ing  fitted  him.  He  became  openly  a  candidate 
for  the  speakership.  His  only  rival  was  Mr. 
Henry  L.  Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  a  man  of 
very  different  talents  and  disposition,  who  had 
won  a  most  honorable  reputation  during  his  ser 
vice  of  twelve  years  in  the  House.  Mr.  Blaine, 
however,  was  much  the  more  energetic  and  ex 
perienced  canvasser  of  the  two,  and  his  success 
was  so  definitely  assured  before  the  close  of  the 
Fortieth  Congress  that  Mr.  Dawes  withdrew, 
and  himself  made  the  motion  in  the  Republican 
caucus  that  Mr.  Blaine  be  nominated  by  accla 
mation.  On  the  first  day  of  the  meeting  of  the 
Forty-first  Congress,  March  4,  1869,  Mr.  Blaine 
was  chosen  Speaker,  by  a  strict  party  vote.  He 
was  also  unanimously  nominated  to  preside  over 
the  House  in  the  Forty-second  and  Forty-third 


106  JAMES  G.  ELAINE 

Congresses,  and  at  each  election  received  the 
votes  of  all  his  party  associates.  Thus  he  com 
pleted  a  term  of  service  —  as  he  remarked  in 
his  valedictory  address  in  1875  —  surpassed 
in  length  by  but  two  of  his  predecessors,  Henry 
Clay  and  Andrew  Stevenson,  and  equalled  by 
only  two  others,  Nathaniel  Macon  and  Schuyler 
Colfax. 

Had  Mr.  Elaine  been  asked  at  the  close  of  his 
political  career  to  designate  the  period  of  his  life 
which  he  recalled  as  the  happiest,  he  would  un 
doubtedly  have  declared  that  the  six  years  of  his 
speakership  constituted  that  period.  Perhaps  no 
man  ever  experiences  a  prolonged  season  of  unin 
terrupted  and  unclouded  happiness.  But  cer 
tainly  at  no  other  time  in  Mr.  Elaine's  life  were 
his  tastes  and  wishes  and  aspirations  so  nearly 
satisfied  as  they  were  then.  He  had  reached  the 
height  of  his  early  ambition,  and  occupied  a  sta 
tion  absolutely  congenial  to  him.  If  he  had  a 
hope,  however  vague,  of  attaining  a  higher  place, 
it  caused  him  not  the  least  anxious  thought  at 
that  time,  and  affected  his  life,  whether  public  or 
private,  in  no  degree.  He  could  not  help  being 
conscious  that  he  discharged  the  duties  of  his 
office  with  distinction,  to  the  universal  accepta 
tion  of  political  friends  and  foes,  and  with  an  easy 
mastery  of  the  difficulties  of  the  position.  His 
faculty  of  making  friends  and  of  enlisting  their 


SPEAKER  107 

services  in  his  behalf  had  turned  the  scale  in  his 
favor  when  the  speakership  was  sought  by  two 
men  of  conspicuous  ability;  the  place  itself  en 
larged  his  opportunity  to  extend  his  acquaintance 
and  to  increase  his  influence  over  men  and  upon 
public  affairs.  Leadership  was  a  passion  with 
him;  the  consciousness  of  power  gave  him  the 
keenest  pleasure;  and  he  was  wise  enough  to 
retain  his  power  by  not  abusing  it. 

Not  only  as  a  public  man  did  he  have  ample 
reason  to  be  contented  with  his  situation.  His 
home  was  always  a  delight  to  him,  and  at  no 
time  were  his  home  and  his  family  life  more  de 
lightful  to  him  than  then.  At  Augusta  he  had 
transferred  his  residence  from  the  contracted 
quarters  in  which  he  lived  at  first  to  a  large  old- 
fashioned  mansion,  with  ample  grounds,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  State  House.  Upon  his  election 
as  Speaker  he  bought  a  house  in  Washington. 
He  was  thus  enabled  to  have  his  family  always 
with  him,  and  no  public  cares  were  permitted  to 
interrupt  his  close  and  affectionate  companion 
ship  with  his  wife  and  his  large  and  interesting 
family  of  growing  sons  and  daughters.  Nor  did 
he  allow  those  cares  to  interfere  with  his  abun 
dant  hospitality.  He  knew  how  to  choose  guests 
and  to  constitute  parties  made  up  of  persons 
mutually  congenial.  He  knew  how  to  draw  the 
line  between  such  elaborate  entertainment  as 


108  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

puts  constraint  upon  both  host  and  guest,  and  the 
careless  take-us-as-you-find-us  indifference  which 
sends  the  diner  away  with  a  feeling  that  he  has 
been  only  half -fed  but  wholly  bored.  His  aptness 
at  finding  precisely  the  subject  that  most  inter 
ested  his  guests,  a  wonderfully  varied  stock  of 
information  that  could  be  brought  effectively  into 
use  in  the  discussions  and  conversations,  com 
plete  command  of  a  fund  of  apt  anecdote,  and 
unusual  skill  as  a  raconteur,  —  all  these  faculties 
combined  made  him  a  charming  host.  His  house 
was  a  resort  of  the  brilliant  men  and  women  of 
whom  so  many  are  attracted  to  Washington  dur 
ing  the  sessions  of  Congress.  He  enjoyed  his 
social  success,  but  he  enjoyed  still  more  entertain 
ment  for  its  own  sake,  and  the  society  of  those 
whom  he  could  assemble  under  his  roof.  He 
became  one  of  the  most  popular  public  men  in 
Washington,  and  manifestations  of  the  esteem, 
the  admiration,  and  the  affection  he  inspired,  of 
which  he  was  conscious,  yet  at  which  he  often 
modestly  expressed  his  wonder,  rounded  out  the 
happiness  and  contentment  that  marked  this 
period  of  his  life  above  all  others.  For  at  that 
time  jealousy  and  political  malignity  had  had  no 
reason  to  scrutinize  the  minutest  acts  of  his  life 
in  an  effort  to  find  something  to  his  discredit.  It 
is  true  that  even  then  he  was  more  than  once 
forced  to  defend  himself  against  assaults  upon  his 


SPEAKER  109 

honor,  but  in  each  of  the  contests  he  succeeded 
in  repelling  the  assault  absolutely.  The  one 
most  serious  accusation  against  him  —  the  one 
lightning  bolt  of  the  storm  that  beat  upon  him  in 
his  later  years  —  had  its  origin  during  his  term 
as  Speaker,  but  neither  that  nor  the  more  easily 
turned  charges  disturbed  his  serenity  or  detracted 
from  his  happiness  at  that  time. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  master  of  his  position  from  the 
day  when  he  first  took  the  gavel  in  his  hand.  He 
had  the  look  and  the  bearing  of  a  leader  and 
commander.  His  strong  and  handsome  features, 
his  well-shaped  person,  his  easy  and  graceful  atti 
tude,  his  penetrating  voice,  his  thorough  acquain 
tance  with  the  rules  of  the  sometimes  turbulent 
body  over  which  he  presided,  the  quickness  and 
keenness  of  his  mind  in  perceiving  the  relation  of 
a  point  of  order  to  the  particular  rule  that  was 
invoked,  and  finally  a  personal  magnetism  that 
won  for  him  the  una vowed  affection  even  of  po 
litical  opponents  against  whom  he  decided  such 
points,1  —  all  these  characteristics  made  him  a 

1  His  private  secretary,  Mr.  Sherman,  informs  the  author 
that  on  one  occasion,  after  a  heated  session  at  which  Mr. 
Blaine  had  ruled  steadily  against  Democratic  filibustering, 
and  had  helped  his  own  party  to  carry  its  point,  he  (Mr.  Sher 
man)  on  leaving  the  Capitol  in  the  dusk  of  early  evening,  passed 
two  Southern  Democratic  members  whom  he  recognized  by 
their  forms.  As  he  passed  he  heard  one  of  them  remark  to  the 
other,  "Now  there  's  Blaine  —  but  damn  him,  I  do  love  him." 


110  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

model  Speaker,  one  of  three  or  four  great  occu 
pants  of  the  chair,  hardly  second  to  any  one.  No 
doubt  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Clay  was  equal  to 
that  of  Mr.  Blaine.  It  is  not  easy  to  believe  that  it 
was  superior.  When  we  consider  that  the  task 
set  before  a  Speaker  presents  ever  increasing 
difficulties  as  the  number  of  members  increases 
and  as  the  volume  of  business  is  enlarged,  it  is 
evident  that  popularity  was  more  easily  won  in 
Henry  Clay's  time  than  in  Elaine's.  At  all  events 
nothing  could  exceed  the  cordiality  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  associates  of  both  parties,  when  he  laid 
down  the  gavel  at  the  close  of  his  service  in 
1875.1 

Yet  Blaine  was  a  strong  partisan,  and  used  the 
power  of  his  position  more  than  did  any  of  his 
predecessors,  not  merely  to  assist  his  own  party 
to  carry  its  measures  and  to  defeat  the  obstruct 
ive  tactics  of  the  opposition,  but  also  to  promote 
or  to  hinder  measures  according  as  they  did  or 

1  In  the  House  there  was  a  most  gratifying  demonstration 
in  favor  of  Speaker  Blaine.  As  he  spoke  the  last  words  of  his 
valedictory  and  stepped  down  from  the  desk,  the  House  rose 
in  unison  and  every  man  joined  with  equal  heartiness  in  a 
round  of  applause  such  as  never  was  heard  before  in  the  Capi 
tol.  It  had  hardly  died  away  when  it  swelled  again  into  a  per 
fect  storm,  accompanied  by  cheers,  and  soon  for  a  third  time 
the  applause  swept  through  the  hall  as  the  Speaker  stood  at 
the  clerk's  desk,  bowing  his  thanks  and  shaking  the  hands 
of  members  who  thronged  about  him.  —  Boston  Daily 
Advertiser,  March  5,  1875. 


SPEAKER  111 

did  not  commend  themselves  to  his  individual 
judgment.  In  other  words  he  constituted  him 
self  a  political  leader.  True,  Clay  himself  was  a 
leader,  while  Speaker  of  the  House,  more  than 
half  a  century  before,  but  not  as  Speaker.  When 
he  had  a  point  to  make  he  addressed  the  House 
from  the  floor,  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  sim 
ply  as  a  member  from  Kentucky.  Students  of 
comparative  government  are  aware,  however, 
that  the  theory  of  the  speakership  differs  in  this 
country  from  that  in  nearly,  if  not  quite,  every 
other  country.  In  almost  all  parliaments  the  pre 
siding  officer,  although  chosen  by  and  himself  a 
member  of  the  ruling  party,  is  expected  to  abjure 
partisanship  altogether  on  assuming  the  chair. 
But  in  those  parliaments  the  government  is  repre 
sented  by  the  highest  officers  of  state,  who  are  the 
recognized  leaders  of  the  majority.  In  American 
representative  assemblies  there  is  no  recognized 
leader,  nor  even  a  chosen  body  or  committee 
which  directs  the  course  of  public  business  and 
places  an  authoritative  seal  of  approval  or  of  dis 
approval  upon  measures  brought  before  it.  In 
such  circumstances  it  is  natural  that  the  person 
elected  by  the  majority  to  preside  and  to  interpret 
the  rules  should  assume,  with  the  tacit  consent 
of  his  fellows,  as  much  authority  over  the  pro 
ceedings  as  the  inborn  American  jealousy  of 
leadership  will  allow.  The  strong  man  goes  a 


112  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

little  beyond  his  weaker  predecessor;  his  own 
weak  successor  claims  all  that  has  been  gained 
for  the  position ;  and  so  there  is  a  steady  develop 
ment,  and  an  evolution  of  power.  Mr.  Carlisle, 
the  next  strong  Speaker  after  Mr.  Blaine,  added 
largely  to  the  authority  of  the  Chair.  Mr.  Reed, 
who  was  in  some  respects  the  most  powerful  per 
sonality  ever  placed  in  the  position,  carried  his 
authority  to  an  extreme;  yet  neither  have  his 
successors  surrendered  any  of  it,  nor  has  the 
House  expected,  or  intimated  a  desire  for,  such  a 
surrender. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  instances  of  Mr. 
Blaine's  use  of  his  position  to  restrain  his  party 
associates  occurred  near  the  close  of  his  first  term 
as  Speaker.  He  was  one  of  the  most  conservative 
members  of  his  party  and  strongly  disapproved 
the  radical  policy  toward  the  Southern  States 
which  was  pressed  upon  the  House  by  a  group 
of  Republicans  of  whom  General  Butler  was  the 
leader.  On  February  16,  1871,  a  bill  was  re 
ported  from  the  Reconstruction  Committee  in 
pursuance  of  that  policy.  Appropriation  bills 
were  occupying  the  attention  of  the  House,  since 
barely  a  fortnight  of  the  short  session  remained. 
On  February  28  General  Butler  obtained  the 
floor  and  called  up  the  bill.  Not  being  a  skilful 
parliamentarian,  he  neglected  to  move  a  suspen 
sion  of  the  rules,  but  called  for  the  reading  of  the 


SPEAKER  113 

bill.  While  the  clerk  was  reading  it,  Mr.  Fer 
nando  Wood,  of  New  York,  moved  a  suspension 
of  the  rules  to  take  up  and  pass  a  resolution  abro 
gating  the  duty  on  coal.  The  Speaker  allowed 
Mr.  Wood  to  take  the  floor  and  entertained  the 
motion,  —  which  was  adopted,  —  on  the  ground 
that  General  Butler  surrendered  the  floor  for  the 
reading  of  the  bill,  that  no  member  had  the  floor 
during  the  reading,  and  that  Mr.  Wood's  motion 
was  in  order. 

Apparently  it  was  a  new  and  undecided  point 
of  parliamentary  law,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  that  a 
fairly  strong  argument  might  be  made  on  either 
side.  Moreover  it  is  almost  safe  to  say  that  Mr. 
Elaine's  decision  would  have  been  against  Mr. 
Wood  if  he  had  been  strongly  in  favor  of  General 
Butler's  bill  and  opposed  to  Mr.  Wood's  resolu 
tion.  No  appeal  from  the  decision  was  taken, 
and  no  discussion  of  the  point  of  order  took  place. 
After  the  coal  duty  question  was  decided,  General 
Butler  moved  to  suspend  the  rules  and  proceed 
to  the  consideration  of  the  bill;  but  it  was  too 
late.  The  necessary  two-thirds  vote  was  not 
forthcoming,  and  the  bill  failed.  Beyond  a  doubt 
it  would  have  been  passed  if  General  Butler  had 
not  lost  the  floor  through  the  ruling  of  the 
Speaker,  who  thus  took  the  responsibility  of 
thwarting  the  will  of  the  House.  Beyond  a  doubt 
also  the  Republicans  themselves  were  glad  after- 


114  JAMES  G.  ELAINE 

ward  that  the  Speaker  had  saved  them  from 
making  a  grave  political  mistake. 

His  defeat  rankled  in  General  Butler's  breast. 
The  Forty-first  Congress  reached  its  constitu 
tional  term  four  days  after  the  events  just  nar 
rated;  a  new  Congress  assembled  on  the  4th  of 
March;  Mr.  Blaine  was  again  elected  Speaker; 
and  General  Butler  again  offered  his  bill.  Butler 
also  secured  the  calling  of  a  caucus  of  Republi 
can  members  to  consider  the  bill.  The  caucus 
was  not  generally  attended,  but  those  who  were 
present  voted  that  the  bill  should  be  passed  at 
that  session.  Many  members  who  were  opposed 
to  it  withdrew  before  the  vote  was  taken,  seeing 
that  they  would  be  outvoted,  and  the  decision  of 
those  who  remained  was  unanimous.  In  order  to 
head  off  the  movement,  Mr.  Blaine  drew  a  reso 
lution  providing  for  the  appointment  of  a  select 
committee  to  sit  during  the  recess  to  investigate 
the  condition  of  the  Southern  States.  He  took 
the  resolution  to  General  Butler,  who  suggested 
an  amendment,  but  who  promptly  and  hotly  de 
clined  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee,  for 
he  saw  that  the  purpose  was  to  defeat  his  own 
scheme. 

The  resolution  was  presented  by  Mr.  Elaine's 
colleague,  Judge  Peters,  of  Maine,  and  was 
adopted.  Just  before  the  close  of  the  day's  ses 
sion,  the  Speaker  appointed  the  committee  for 


SPEAKER  115 

which  the  resolution  provided,  with  General 
Butler  as  chairman,  and  declared  the  House  ad 
journed  before  any  one  had  an  opportunity  to 
decline  service.  General  Butler  took  the  appoint 
ment,  after  he  had  refused  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  committee,1  as  an  affront,  and  pre 
pared  a  long  letter  to  his  Republican  associates, 
giving  his  reasons  for  his  refusal,  had  the  docu 
ment  printed  and  distributed  through  the  House, 
and  caused  it  to  be  telegraphed  over  the  country. 
The  General  was  skilled  in  the  art  of  conveying 
insinuations  without  making  direct  charges,  and 
in  making  most  violent  personal  attacks  in  lan 
guage  which  the  person  assailed  could  not  resent 
without  finding  himself  caught  in  a  cunningly 
laid  verbal  trap. 

Soon  after  the  House  met  on  the  day  after  the 
resolution  was  passed,  an  occasion  presented  itself 
to  General  Butler  to  say  on  the  floor,  in  more 
detail  and  with  greater  offensiveness,  what  he 
had  said  in  his  letter.  His  speech  abounded  in 
accusations  of  treachery  and  bad  faith  on  the 
part  of  the  Republicans  who  had  voted  for  the 
resolution,  and  he  was  especially  malignant 
toward  the  Speaker,  whom  he  accused  again  and 
again  of  having  played  a  trick  on  the  House.  Mr. 
Blaine  called  Mr.  Shellabarger,  of  Ohio,  to  the 

1  He  told  the  House  that  his  reply  to  the  Speaker's  request 
that  he  serve  as  chairman  was,  "I'll  be  damned  if  I  will." 


116  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

chair,  took  the  floor,  and  paid  his  respects  to 
General  Butler  in  terms  which  had  not  been  ap 
proached  for  plainness  of  speech  since  his  own 
famous  retort  upon  Mr.  Conkling.  It  was  not 
dignified.  Neither  Mr.  Blaine  in  his  sharp  de 
fence  of  himself,  nor  General  Butler  in  his  rejoin 
der,  was  careful  to  choose  words  approved  by 
parliamentary  law  and  custom.  Moreover  it  must 
be  admitted  that  greater  circumspection  of  speech 
is  expected  and  is  due  from  the  Speaker  than 
from  any  private  member,  —  vastly  more  than 
was  expected  from  General  Butler,  who  carried 
to  Congress  the  manners  and  the  vocabulary  of 
a  police-court  lawyer.  The  provocation  to  Mr. 
Blaine  was  great,  for  he  was  attacked  for  doing 
what,  as  a  member  of  the  House,  he  had  a  right 
to  do;  he  was  accused  of  springing  a  surprise 
when  he  had  fully  discussed  the  matter  with  the 
very  person  who  brought  the  accusation ;  he  was 
charged  with  party  treachery  in  that  he  went 
against  the  decision  of  a  caucus  which  he  did  not 
attend,  although  the  fact  that  the  party  was,  on 
the  whole,  on  his  side  appeared  in  the  vote  on  the 
resolution,  which  was  supported  by  a  majority 
of  Republicans.  Nevertheless,  richly  deserved  as 
was  his  chastisement  of  Butler's  arrogance,  one 
cannot  help  regretting  the  whole  incident.  It  is 
a  striking  commentary  upon  the  General's  lack  of 
serious  conviction,  notwithstanding  the  violence 


SPEAKER  117 

of  his  language,  that  on  the  very  next  day  he  went 
in  a  most  amiable  mood  to  the  Speaker's  desk 
and  invited  Mr.  Elaine  and  members  of  his  .family 
to  accompany  him  on  an  excursion  to  Fortress 
Monroe  and  Norfolk. 

Upon  another  occasion,  when  also  he  had 
General  Butler  for  an  antagonist,  Mr.  Blaine 
exhibited  the  best  qualities  of  his  remarkable 
best.  The  Forty -third  Congress  was  just  expiring, 
the  Democrats  had  already  elected  a  large  ma 
jority  of  the  members  of  the  next  House  of  Re 
presentatives,  and  the  unlimited  power  over 
legislation  which  the  Republicans  had  exercised 
since  1861  was  about  to  pass  from  them  for  a 
period  of  six  years.  It  was  the  last  month  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  service  as  Speaker.  The  radicals  among 
the  Republicans  were  extremely  anxious  to  place 
on  the  statute  book  a  law  regulating  elections  in 
the  South,  in  order  to  prevent  the  whites  from 
terrorizing  the  negroes  and  so  capturing  the  state 
governments.  However  strongly  Mr.  Blaine  may 
have  sympathized  with  the  purposes  of  the  radi 
cals,  and  certainly  his  sympathies  were  then  and 
always  on  the  side  of  the  fullest  political  rights  for 
the  freedmen,  he  was  not  in  favor  of  the  drastic 
measure  proposed  for  accomplishing  the  object. 
The  "  force  bill "  was  reported  by  Mr.  Coburn,  of 
Indiana,  February  18,  1875.  On  the  24th,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  session  of  the  House,  there  was 


118  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

a  contest  between  Mr.  Coburn  and  General  Gar- 
field.  Mr.  Coburn  wished  the  House  to  take  up 
his  bill;  General  Garfield,  who  was  opposed  to 
the  force  bill,  asked  for  the  consideration  of  the 
sundry  civil  appropriation  bill.  The  House  sus 
tained  Garfield  by  a  vote  of  147  to  101,  the  Dem 
ocrats  and  conservative  Republicans  voting  in 
the  affirmative,  the  radical  Republicans  in  the 
negative.  After  several  hours'  consideration  of  the 
appropriation  bill,  the  House  took  a  recess  until 
evening,  General  Garfield,  who  made  the  motion, 
remarking,  in  explanation,  "  to  enable  me  to  go  on 
with  the  sundry  civil  bill."  Mr.  Coburn  moved 
to  amend  the  motion  so  that  the  evening  session 
should  be  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  his  bill, 
which  bore  the  title,  "  a  bill  to  provide  against 
the  invasion  of  States,  to  prevent  the  subversion 
of  their  authority,  and  to  maintain  the  security  of 
elections."  The  Speaker  said  that  "  that  could  not 
be  done  except  by  general  consent."  Mr.  Ran 
dall  objected  on  the  ground  that  "we  want  to 
finish  these  appropriation  bills." 

The  general  understanding,  then,  was  that  the 
House  would  go  into  committee  of  the  whole  and 
continue  its  work  upon  the  appropriation  bill. 
Mr.  Blaine  designated  a  member  to  serve  as 
Speaker  pro  tempore  until  the  House  went  into 
committee,  and  attended  a  dinner  party,  intend 
ing  to  absent  himself  during  the  evening.  Gen- 


SPEAKER  119 

eral  Butler  quietly  passed  around  word  among 
his  followers  that  by  attending  the  evening  session 
in  force  they  could  reverse  the  morning  decision 
and  secure  consideration  of  the  force  bill.  Ac 
cordingly,  when  General  Garfield  moved  that  the 
House  go  into  committee  of  the  whole,  General 
Butler  opposed  the  motion,  and  upon  a  call  of  the 
yeas  and  nays  General  Garfield  was  defeated. 
Thereupon  the  Democrats  began  filibustering, 
by  the  usual  devices  of  motions  to  adjourn,  and 
of  breaking  the  quorum  by  withholding  their 
votes. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  hastily  sent  for.  He  appeared 
suddenly  in  his  place,  during  a  roll-call,  and  as 
sumed  the  gavel.  He  was  in  full  evening  dress, 
having  gone  directly  from  the  dinner-table  to  the 
Capitol.  That  was  a  memorable  session  of  the 
House.  It  began  at  half-past  seven  in  the  evening, 
and  ended  at  four  o'clock  the  next  afternoon. 
During  all  that  time  Mr.  Blaine  remained  at  his 
post  without  rest.  Refreshments  were  brought  to 
him  at  the  desk,  and  he  did  not  leave  the  House 
for  a  moment  save  during  the  calling  of  the  roll, 
which  could  not  be  interrupted  by  any  member. 
At  the  close  of  the  long  contest  he  was  "  weary  but 
alert,"  as  one  of  the  newspaper  correspondents 
remarked.  Seldom  has  a  presiding  officer  been 
called  upon  to  perform  a  more  perplexing  and 
thankless  task.  A  large  majority  of  the  Repub- 


120  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

lican  members  desired  to  bring  the  bill  before  the 
House.  Some  of  them  went  to  him  and  urged 
him  to  make  rulings  favorable  to  them.  He  re 
fused  emphatically  to  stretch  the  rules  for  their 
benefit.  On  the  other  hand,  he  decided  many 
questions  adversely  to  the  Democrats.  In  short 
he  presided  with  absolute  impartiality.  As  soon 
as  dilatory  motions  had  been  exhausted  and  the 
Republicans  mustered  a  quorum  of  their  own 
members,  the  contest  was  at  an  end,  and  Mr. 
Blaine  firmly  put  down  the  filibustering  which 
the  Democrats  endeavored  to  continue.  His  emi 
nent  fairness  throughout  the  long  session  was 
generally  recognized,  and  no  doubt  the  members 
on  both  sides  of  the  House  remembered  it  when, 
a  week  later,  they  joined  in  the  remarkable  de 
monstration  in  his  honor  at  the  close  of  his 
service  as  Speaker.1 

1  Never  during  his  whole  service  as  Speaker  of  the  House 
has  Mr.  Blaine  displayed  to  better  advantage  his  exceptional 
ability  as  a  parliamentarian  and  presiding  officer,  or  his 
power  to  dispose  instantly  of  the  most  perplexing  questions. 
His  rulings  invariably  were  approved  by  both  sides  of  the 
House,  and  if  the  Democrats  appealed  from  them,  it  was  gen 
erally  for  the  purpose  of  delay,  and  not  because  of  any  doubt 
as  to  the  correctness  of  his  decisions.  —  New  York  Tribune, 
February  26,  1875. 

Notwithstanding  the  persuasion,  blustering,  and  covert 
threats,  Speaker  Blaine  discharged  his  duty  with  a  consist 
ency  and  impartiality  for  which  the  Republicans  in  the  House 
may  find  reason  to  congratulate  themselves.  —  Boston  Daily 
Advertiser,  same  date. 


SPEAKER  121 

In  the  important  matter  of  committee  appoint 
ments  Mr.  Elaine  displayed  excellent  judgment 
and  exercised  great  fairness.  Many  years  after  he 
had  ceased  to  be  Speaker  the  charge  was  brought 
against  him,  vaguely,  that  he  had  made  corrupt 
appointments,  by  choosing  members  who  would 
promote  his  own  selfish  interests.  The  two  facts 
that  no  specific  cases  were  ever  mentioned,  and 
that  the  charge  was  not  brought  against  him 
during  his  incumbency  of  the  office,  by  the  most 
virulent  political  opponent,  constitute  a  sufficient 
reason  for  rejecting  the  accusation  as  unworthy 
of  belief.  At  the  same  time  its  vagueness  renders 
a  formal  refutation  of  it  impossible.  But  it  may 
be  added  that  no  measure  was  before  Congress 
during  Mr.  Elaine's  Speakership,  the  passage  or 
defeat  of  which  would  affect  his  personal  inter 
est.  Again,  the  accusation  is  an  attack  upon  the 
personal  honor  of  every  member  of  Congress  who 
may  have  been  supposed  to  accept  a  committee 
appointment  under  an  obligation  to  favor  the 
Speaker's  private  interests. 

In  one  important  case  Mr.  Elaine's  appoint 
ment  of  a  committee  was  greatly  criticised.  There 
was  a  strong  tariff-reform  movement  within  the 
Republican  party  in  1871.  The  sentiment  was 
especially  rife  in  the  West.  In  appointing  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  of  the  Forty- 
second  Congress  Mr.  Elaine  designated  one  tariff- 


122  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

reform  Republican,  who,  with  the  Democrats, 
constituted  a  majority  of  the  committee.  Al 
though  Mr.  Dawes,  a  stout  protectionist,  was 
made  chairman,  he  was  virtually  without  author 
ity,  and  was  outvoted.  This  action  by  a  Speaker 
who  was  a  life-long  protectionist  many  Repub 
licans  deemed  strange  and  somewhat  disloyal. 
And  perhaps  their  indignation  was  justified. 
Whatever  may  be  said  on  that  point,  in  the  end 
it  led  to  a  moderate  and  judicious  reduction 
of  the  tariff,  and  to  the  defeat  of  extremists  on 
both  sides  of  the  question. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  Mr.  Elaine's 
public  life  was  marked  by  many  dramatic  and 
spectacular  events  and  scenes.  The  Conkling 
incident,  and  the  encounter  with  General  Butler 
wlu'ch  has  just  been  described,  were  two  such 
occurrences.  Another  such  occurrence  belongs 
to  the  speakership  period.  Several  assaults  were 
made  upon  him  during  his  public  life  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  been  pecuniarily  concerned 
in  the  stock  and  bonds  of  railroads  which  had 
>een  favored  by  Congress,  and  had  received  such 
3onds  either  as  a  gratuity  or  at  a  price  below  the 
market,  in  consideration  of  his  services  as  a  mem- 
>er  of  Congress.  The  first  of  these  accusations 
represented  him  as  having  received  large  amounts 
of  the  stock  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com 
pany.  It  was  made  in  1872,  in  the  New  York 


SPEAKER  123 

"Tribune,"  then  still  under  the  editorship  of 
Horace  Greeley,  who  was  the  Democratic  candi 
date  for  President  in  that  year.  Mr.  Elaine  not 
only  denied  the  charge  in  the  most  emphatic  and 
sweeping  terms,  in  a  public  speech  at  Cleveland, 
but  asserted  that  he  had  never  been  interested 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  amount  of  a  single 
dollar,  in  the  stock  of  the  company;  and  he  fur 
ther  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  favors 
-  loan  of  credit  and  land  grant  —  of  Congress 
to  the  company  had  been  bestowed  before  he 
was  even  a  candidate  for  Congress.  The  assault 
upon  Mr.  Elaine  failed  absolutely;  and  not  long 
after  his  speech  the  "  Tribune  "  frankly  and  fully 
withdrew  its  accusation. 

At  about  the  same  time  the  famous  Credit 
Mobilier  charges  were  made  against  him  and 
many  other  members  of  both  Houses  of  Congress. 
The  Credit  Mobilier  was  a  company  organized 
to  construct  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  The 
railroad  company  itself  could  not,  or  at  least  did 
not,  raise  the  funds  necessary  to  build  the  line. 
The  construction  was  a  vast  undertaking  and 
required  financial  courage  and  responsibility 
many  times  as  great  as  would  be  called  for  at  the 
present  day.  Oakes  Ames,  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  from  Massachusetts, 
was  at  the  head  of  the  railroad  company,  and  also 
of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  The  construction  com- 


124  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

pany  carried  out  its  contract  and  made  a  large 
profit  upon  it,  —  a  detail  which  loomed  much 
larger  before  the  eyes  of  the  generation  which 
witnessed  the  occurrences  than  its  logical  impor 
tance  justified.  For  if  Mr.  Ames  had  lost  money 
instead  of  adding  as  he  did  to  a  previously  large 
fortune,  he  would  have  had  the  sympathy  of  the 
people  as  one  who  had  courageously  engaged  in 
a  great  and  patriotic  enterprise,  when  others 
turned  from  it,  and  who  had  been  ruined  when 
he  should  have  reaped  a  rich  reward. 

The  basis  of  the  accusation  against  members 
of  Congress  was  a  note-book  of  Mr.  Ames,  in 
which  were  entered  the  initials  of  such  members, 
and  opposite  each  the  amount  of  dividend  on 
Credit  Mobilier  stock  which  he  was  supposed  to 
have  received.  Mr.  Elaine's  initials  were  in  the 
list.  The  theory  of  the  accusers,  which  was  to  a 
certain  extent  correct,  was  that  Mr.  Ames  repre 
sented  to  members  that  the  enterprise  would  be 
profitable,  that  he  offered  to  each  a  certain  amount 
of  stock,  that  the  shares  were  never  paid  for,  but 
that  Mr.  Ames,  having  nominally  sold  the  shares 
to  them,  paid  the  dividend  upon  the  fictitious 
investment.  Some  of  those  who  were  accused 
acknowledged  boldly  that  the  above  account  of 
what  took  place  was  true  as  to  themselves,  and 
declared  that  the  transaction  was  honorable, 
certainly  not  dishonorable.  Others,  who  had 


SPEAKER  125 

really  received  Mr.  Ames's  money,  denied  that 
they  had  been  concerned  in  the  business.  It  is 
a  singular  circumstance  that  the  political  career 
of  every  man  who  denied  falsely  his  participation 
in  the  proceeds  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  was 
brought  to  an  abrupt  close;  but  that  all  who 
openly  avowed  that  the  accusation  was  true,  and 
maintained  that  no  wrong  had  been  done, 
remained  in  public  life  and  were  in  no  wise 
injured  by  the  affair. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  third  session  of  the 
Forty-second  Congress  Mr.  Blaine  called  to  the 
chair  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox,  of  New  York,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  Democrats  in  the  House,  and, 
after  reciting  the  accusation  of  bribery  and  the 
list  of  the  accused,  offered  a  resolution  for  the 
appointment  of  a  select  committee  to  investigate 
the  whole  matter.  The  result  of  the  inquiry, 
which  was  prosecuted  mercilessly,  so  far  as  Mr. 
Blaine  was  concerned,  was  a  complete  exonera 
tion  of  the  Speaker  from  any  interest  or  participa 
tion  in  the  affair.  As  has  been  intimated,  many 
honorable  reputations  were  wrecked  when  the 
evidence  taken  was  made  public.  Yet  Oakes 
Ames  was  incapable  of  bribing  or  attempting  to 
bribe  a  fellow  member,  and  he  was  far  too  shrewd 
a  man  to  purchase  support  of  an  enterprise  which 
was  unanimously  approved  by  the  whole  country, 
and  which  had  no  favors  to  ask  of  Congress.  But 


126  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

public  sentiment,  illogically  ignoring  these  facts, 
demanded  scapegoats,  and  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  furnished  them  from  its  own  member 
ship.  Mr.  Ames  went  speedily  to  his  grave  in 
unmerited  disgrace,  and  the  juster  and  truer  view 
of  his  conduct  came  too  late.1 

One  incident  of  Mr.  Elaine's  career  as  Speaker, 
in  which  his  character  as  a  man  as  well  as  his 
conduct  as  a  presiding  officer  appears  in  a  strik 
ing  manner,  should  not  be  omitted.  In  the  Forty- 
second  Congress  a  persistent  movement  was  made 
for  a  general  increase  of  salaries.  The  proposition 
encountered  determined  opposition,  and  the  bill 
to  carry  it  into  effect  narrowly  escaped  defeat  on 
several  occasions.  The  strength  of  the  measure 
lay  largely  in  the  evident  propriety  of  increasing 
the  salary  of  the  President,  which  had  not  been 
changed  in  amount  since  it  was  originally  estab 
lished  in  the  time  of  Washington.  The  salaries 
of  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  were  also 
extremely  low.  Those  who  managed  the  affair 
were  resolved  that  the  manifest  justice  of  in 
creasing  these  salaries  should  cover  also  an 
increase  of  the  compensation  of  senators  and 

1  In  1880  an  attempt  was  made  to  revive  the  odium  of  the 
Credit  Mobilier  revelations  for  the  purpose  of  defeating 
General  Garfield  for  the  presidency.  The  number  "329" 
was  posted  on  walls  and  chalked  upon  pavements  all  over  the 
country,  to  imply  that  General  Garfield  had  sold  his  honor  to 
Mr.  Ames  for  the  paltry  sum  of 


SPEAKER  127 

representatives.  If  they  had  been  content  with 
making  the  increase  of  the  pay  of  members  be 
gin  at  the  same  time  that  the  President's  enlarged 
salary  was  to  go  into  effect,  there  would  undoubt 
edly  have  been  less  popular  indignation  than 
was  actually  aroused.  They  were  not  so  con 
tent,  but  provided  in  the  bill  that  the  congres 
sional  salary  should  be  retroactive,  and  that 
senators  and  members  of  the  existing  Congress 
should  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars  from  the  4th  of  M^rch,  1871. 
This  was  an  increase  of  fifty  per  cent.,  and  was 
virtually  a  vote  of  a  gratuity  of  five  thousand  dol 
lars  to  each  member,  who  had  already  served 
within  a  month  of  the  two  years'  term. 

When  the  bill  was  pending  in  the  House,  Mr. 
Blaine,  who  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  "  salary 
grab,"  as  it  was  universally  called,  asked  unani 
mous  consent  to  put  the  word  "  hereafter "  after 
the  words  "  shall  receive  "  in  fixing  the  salary  of  the 
Speaker  at  ten  thousand  dollars.  Without  that 
change  the  Speaker  would,  for  two  years,  have 
received  higher  compensation  than  the  Vice- 
President  or  the  members  of  the  Cabinet.  "  The 
Chair  hears  no  objection,"  said  the  Speaker.  It 
was  a  case  of  wilful  deafness,  for  two  members 
sprang  to  their  feet  to  object.  Mr.  Blaine  calmly 
wrote  the  word  "hereafter"  in  the  bill,  and  the 
amendment  was  made  without  a  vote  of  the 


128  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

House.  In  the  Senate  the  phraseology  was 
changed,  but  it  still  had  the  effect  of  excepting 
the  Speaker  from  the  retroactive  feature  of  the 
increase.  When,  therefore,  the  popular  outcry 
against  the  "  grab  "  resounded  through  the  coun 
try,  and  members  who  had  taken  the  extra  pay 
were  hastily  returning  it,  to  be  covered  into  the 
Treasury,  Mr.  Elaine  had  no  apologies  to  make 
and  no  excess  of  compensation  to  be  returned. 
The  country  fell  upon  bad  times  during  the  recess 
of  Congress,  for  the  terrible  financial  disaster  of 
1873  occurred  in  September,  wrecked  fortunes, 
and  prostrated  business.  The  nejv  Congress 
made  haste  to  repeal  the  whole  of  the  salary  act  of 
March  4,  1873,  except  so  much  as  related  to  the 
President  and  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
who  are  protected  by  express  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  from*  a  diminution  of  their  salaries 
during  their  continuance  in  office. 

Astute  politician  as  Mr.  Elaine  was,  he  did  not 
foresee  the  Republican  reverse  of  1874.  For  once 
the  indication  of  the  election  in  Maine,  in  Sep 
tember,  was  misleading.  That  state  returned  all 
the  members  of  Congress  by  the  usual  majorities, 
and  in  the  vote  for  governor  and  legislature  seemed 
to  forecast  a  general  Republican  victory  in  No 
vember.  But  a  complete  political  revolution  was 
impending,  and  the  new  House  of  Represent 
atives  was  controlled  by  the  Democrats  by  a  ma^ 


SPEAKER  129 

jority  of  almost  two  thirds.  There  were  few 
Republican  survivors  of  the  "  carpet-baggers," 
"  scallawags,"  and  colored  men  who  had  repre 
sented  Southern  States,  and  the  Democrats 
made  serious  inroads  upon  the  delegations  of  the 
strongest  Republican  states  of  the  North.  For 
the  first  time  since  he  entered  public  life  Mr. 
Blaine  found  himself  in  opposition. 


VI 


MINORITY   LEADER  — THE   MULLIGAN 
LETTERS 

WHATEVER  may  have  been  the  causes  of  the 
overwhelming  reverse  which  the  Republicans 
suffered  in  1874,  not  one  of  them  can  justly  be 
charged  in  any  degree  upon  Mr.  Elaine.  The 
rigorous  policy  of  Congress  toward  the  South 
brought  about  a  revulsion  of  feeling  in  the 
Northern  States  which  contributed  much  to  the 
result,  but  Mr.  Blaine  was  universally  recognized 
as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  faction  which  opposed 
that  policy.  Although  a  most  earnest  sup 
porter  of  the  system  of  protection,  he  had  gone 
even  to  the  point  of  exposing  himself  to  the 
charge  of  treachery  to  the  cause,  in  an  effort  to 
satisfy  the  tariff-reformers  without  yielding  the 
principle.  If  his  judgment  had  prevailed,  the  free 
trade  sentiment  would  have  had  far  less  influence 
than  it  actually  exercised  in  assisting  the  political 
revolution.  Popular  indignation  was  aroused  by 
the  large  expenditures  sanctioned  by  Congress, 
which  were  regarded  as  reckless  and  extravagant, 
and  were  suspected  to  be  tainted  with  corruption. 
As  a  private  member  and  as  Speaker,  Mr.  Blaine 


MINORITY  LEADER  131 

always  stood  on  the  side  of  economy,  and  in  the 
closing  hours  of  each  session,  when  schemers 
found  members  for  the  most  part  careless  and 
indulgent,  he  was  the  "watch-dog"  who  pre 
vented  plunder  of  the  Treasury,  not  by  an  audible 
objection  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  published 
proceedings,  but  by  the  more  effectual  method  of 
refusing  recognition  to  members  who  wished  to 
secure  consideration  of  measures  that  would  not 
survive  the  ordeal  of  debate. 

There  were  several  other  causes  of  the  political 
disaster,  chargeable  neither  upon  Mr.  Blaine  nor 
upon  Congress  as  a  whole.  The  scandal  of  the 
whiskey  frauds  involved  persons  so  near  to  the 
President  that  a  part  of  the  odium  fell  unjustly 
upon  him  and  threw  discredit  upon  the  adminis 
tration.  Worst  of  all,  the  terrible  financial  panic 
of  1873  left  the  country  in  precisely  that  condi 
tion  of  business  depression  and  despair  which  is 
always  most  favorable  for  an  opposition  party. 
Against  this  formidable  combination  of  adverse 
circumstances  the  Republican  party  was  unable 
to  stand,  and  it  fell. 

The  Forty-fourth  Congress  assembled  on  the 
6th  of  December,  1875.  The  state  of  parties 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  was  indicated 
nearly  accurately  by  the  vote  for  Speaker.  Mr. 
Kerr  of  Indiana  received  the  support  of  173 
members,  Mr.  Blaine  of  106.  But  before  the 


132  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

House  had  been  in  session  three  hours,  Mr.  Blaine 
had  confronted  the  Democratic  majority  and  had 
won  a  parliamentary  victory.  The  question  was 
upon  the  admission  of  a  member-elect  from 
Louisiana  as  having  prima  facie  a  right  to  the 
seat.  Lpuisiana  was  for  a  long  time  one  of  the 
chief  storm-centres  during  the  disturbances  of 
the  Civil  War  and  the  reconstruction  period.  A 
year  or  two  before  the  meeting  of  the  new  Con 
gress  a  state  of  affairs  developed  in  Louisiana  not 
wholly  unlike  that  of  a  revolution  in  one  of  the 
Spanish  republics  on  the  other  side  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Two  persons  claimed  the  governorship 
and  there  were  rival  legislatures.  After  an  investi 
gation  had  been  made,  a  compromise  was  effected 
to  which  many  of  the  Democrats  in  Congress  con 
sented.  William  P.  Kellogg,  Republican,  was 
recognized  as  governor,  and  the  Democrats  were 
permitted  to  organize  and  control  the  legislature. 
Louisiana  was  entitled  to  six  members  of  the 
House.  Four  of  the  members  elect  presented 
credentials  signed  by  both  claimants  of  the  gov 
ernorship.  One,  whose  seat  was  uncontested, 
offered  credentials  signed  by  Governor  Kellogg 
alone.  For  the  seat  for  the  fifth  district  Frank 
Morey  offered  credentials  authenticated  by  Gov 
ernor  Kellogg;  William  B.  Spencer  presented  a 
certificate  of  election  attested  by  John  McEnery, 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor.  When 


MINORITY  LEADER  133 

the  members  elect  were  being  sworn  in,  Mr. 
Fernando  Wood  of  New  York  asked  that  Mr. 
Morey  stand  aside,  and  accordingly  he  was  not 
permitted  to  take  the  oath  with  the  other  members 
of  the  delegation.  After  the  rest  of  the  members 
had  been  sworn  in,  Mr.  JVood  offered  a  resolution 
referring  both  certificates  to  the  Committee  on 
Elections,  with  instructions  to  report  as  speedily 
as  possible  which  of  the  claimants  should  be  ad 
mitted  to  the  seat. 

Mr.  Blaine  antagonized  the  resolution  on  the 
ground  that  it  implied  that  the  question  who  was 
governor  of  Louisiana  was  still  open  to  doubt. 
He  said  that  no  department  of  the  national  gov 
ernment  had  recognized  Mr.  McEnery  as  gov 
ernor.  Furthermore  he  called  the  attention  of  the 
House  to  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  one 
member  had  already  been  sworn  in  on  the 
strength  of  a  certificate  from  Governor  Kellogg 
only;  and  to  the  remark  of  Mr.  Wood  that  "it 
was  unchallenged,"  he  retorted,  "  but  if  the  gov 
ernor  of  Louisiana  is  not  competent  to  give  a  cer 
tificate,  why  should  not  it  have  been  challenged  ?  " 
A  warm  debate  ensued,  which  was  participated 
in  by  leading  members  on  both  sides  of  the 
House.  In  deference  to  strong  objections  to  the 
original  form  of  the  resolution,  it  was  modified, 
and  provided  simply  for  the  reference  of  Mr. 
Morey's  credentials,  with  instructions  to  the 


134  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

committee  to  report  on  his  prima  facie  right  to 
a  seat.  On  the  first  test  vote  the  Democrats  had 
a  majority  of  one  only;  but  they  could  not  pass  the 
resolution.  Mr.  Blaine  then  took  charge  of  the 
matter  and  offered  a  resolution  that  Mr.  Morey 
be  sworn  in  as  a  member  of  the  House,  which 
was  passed  without  a  division. 

This  was  but  one  of  several  occasions  on  which 
Blaine  displayed  a  remarkable  adroitness  of 
parliamentary  strategy  that  enabled  him  to  carry 
his  point  on  a  party  question  in  a  body  politically 
opposed  to  him.  In  accomplishing  this  feat  he 
was  aided  greatly  by  the  weakness  —  attributable 
solely  to  the  inexperience  —  of  his  opponents. 
They  had  been  in  a  minority  so  long,  most  of 
them  during  their  whole  public  lives,  that  they 
had  learned  only  the  tactics  of  opposition.  They 
knew  how  to  obstruct  and  to  defeat  a  measure, 
not  how  to  carry  it.  Mr.  Blaine,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  equally  versed  in  both  arts.  Indeed 
his  first  training  in  public  affairs,  as  a  journalist, 
was  as  a  stout  opponent  of  the  administrations 
of  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  and  all  his  life  he  was 
never  a  more  redoubtable  antagonist  than  when 
he  could  recur  to  the  language  of  denunciation 
and  ridicule. 

It  was  but  a  few  days  after  this  that  Mr.  Blaine 
involved  the  House  in  a  bitter  political  contro 
versy  which  must  have  had  a  great  influence  upon 


MINORITY  LEADER  135 

his  personal  fortunes  as  a  public  man.  In  the 
management  of  the  affair  he  displayed  high  par 
liamentary  strategy  and  carried  his  point  in  an 
assembly  in  which  his  party  was  in  a  minority. 
The  fact  that  Mr.  Elaine  has  included  his  prin 
cipal  speech  on  that  occasion  in  his  collected 
volume  of  "  Political  Discussions "  is  doubtless 
sufficient  evidence  that  upon  mature  reflection  he 
did  not  see  reason  to  regret  his  course.  But  not 
at  that  time  nor  afterward  have  Blaine's  friends 
been  all  of  the  opinion  that  his  action  was  well 
for  him  or  well  for  the  country.  They  did  and  do 
admire  the  cleverness  with  which  he  threw  his 
political  enemies  into  confusion,  the  eloquence 
with  which  he  advocated  his  cause,  and  the  skill 
with  which  he  used  the  rules  of  the  House  to  ac 
complish  his  purpose.  The  political  expediency 
of  his  course,  and  the  usefulness  of  the  object 
which  he  had  in  view,  are  open  to  doubt. 

Mr.  Randall  of  Pennsylvania  introduced  a  bill 
removing  the  disability  to  hold  office,  imposed  by 
the  fourteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
from  all  those  upon  whom  the  disability  still 
rested.  Mr.  Blaine  wished  to  offer  an  amend 
ment  excepting  Jefferson  Davis  from  the  opera 
tion  of  the  bill,  and  making  it  a  condition  as  to  all 
other  persons  that  they  should  be  relieved  of  the 
disability  upon  appearing  in  a  court  of  record 
and  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United 


136  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

States.  Mr.  Randall  refused  to  allow  the  amend 
ment  to  be  offered,  but  demanded  "  the  previous 
question,"  which  would  cut  off  the  right  to 
amend.  He  then  claimed  the  floor  for  an  hour, 
but  was  nonplussed  when  he  was  reminded  that 
the  mover  of  the  previous  question  was  entitled 
to  the  hour  only  as  to  bills  reported  from  a  com 
mittee,  and  this  was  a  bill  which  no  committee 
had  considered.  The  House  was  therefore 
brought  without  debate  to  a  vote  on  the  passage 
of  the  bill.  A  two-thirds  vote  was  required  by 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  and  that,  of 
course,  the  Democrats  were  unable  to  obtain. 
The  vote  was  175  ayes,  97  noes. 

Under  the  usage  of  the  House  the  leader  of 
the  prevailing  side  succeeded  to  the  management 
of  the  measure.  Mr.  Elaine  moved  a  reconsider 
ation  of  the  vote  rejecting  the  bill  and  took  the 
floor  to  debate  the  question.  He  gave  notice  of 
his  intention,  in  case  the  vote  should  be  recon 
sidered,  to  offer  his  amendment  as  a  substitute.  It 
was  upon  this  question  that  the  discussion  pre 
sently  to  be  mentioned  took  place.  It  was  evi 
dently  a  discussion  which  the  Democrats  would 
gladly  have  avoided  and  which  they  desired  to 
bring  to  an  end  as  speedily  as  possible.  This  is 
not  to  imply  that  they  felt  that  their  argumenta 
tive  defence  was  weak.  They  were  too  well  aware 
of  the  persistence  of  Northern  sentiment,  of  the 


MINORITY  LEADER  137 

ease  with  which  the  passions  of  the  civil  war 
could  be  revived,  and  of  Mr.  Elaine's  ability  as 
a  debater,  to  relish  the  discussion  at  all.  Accord 
ingly  Mr.  Randall  gave  notice  that  he  was  about 
to  call  the  previous  question  on  Mr.  Elaine's 
motion  to  reconsider  the  rejection  of  the  bill.  Mr. 
Elaine  resisted  the  move  as  displacing  him  from 
the  management  of  the  question  and  therefore 
contrary  to  usage;  but  the  Speaker  decided 
against  him.  After  the  previous  question  had 
been  agreed  to,  Mr.  Randall  gave  the  floor  to 
Mr.  Banks  of  Massachusetts,  who  proposed  to 
offer  an  amendment  to  the  original  bill  embody 
ing  one  part  of  Mr.  Elaine's  amendment, — that 
which  made  amnesty  conditional  upon  the  tak 
ing  of  an  oath,  in  court,  to  support  and  defend 
the  Constitution.  The  admission  of  the  Banks 
amendment  required  unanimous  consent,  and 
Mr.  Elaine  objected.  Mr.  Randall  then  moved 
to  refer  the  bill  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judi 
ciary  with  instructions  to  report  the  bill  with 
the  Banks  amendment,  and  to  this  the  House 
agreed. 

When  the  bill  was  reported  back,  the  next  day, 
in  accordance  with  the  instructions,  the  previous 
question  was  called  upon  it  at  once,  and  again  it 
was  rejected,  ayes  184,  noes  97,  —  not  two  thirds. 
Again  the  management  of  the  question  fell  to 
Mr.  Elaine,  who  at  once  moved  a  reconsideration 


138  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  the  vote  rejecting  the  bill,  and  asked  unani 
mous  consent  to  present  his  own  amendment. 
Mr.  Randall  objected,  and  a  brief  but  interesting 
debate  took  place,  in  which  Mr.  Blaine  said  that 
he  was  in  favor  of  an  amnesty  bill  that  could 
be  passed,  and  Mr.  Randall  retorted  that  the  gen 
tleman  from  Maine  was  not  sincere  in  the  least 
degree.  When  Mr.  Randall  persisted  in  his 
objection,  Mr.  Blaine  withdrew  the  motion  to 
reconsider,  and  the  contest  was  at  an  end.  No 
amnesty  bill  was  passed. 

Such  is  the  parliamentary  history  of  the  inci 
dent.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Blaine,  with  which 
the  debate  began,  was  a  terrible  arraignment  of 
Jefferson  Davis  as  "the  author,  knowingly,  de 
liberately,  guiltily,  and  wilfully,  of  the  gigantic 
murders  and  crimes  at  Andersonville."  This  is 
not  the  place  to  set  forth  even  in  brief  the  state 
ments  and  arguments  by  which  he  sustained  this 
thesis,  nor  to  give  the  denials,  the  counter-state 
ments  and  the  counter-accusations  with  which  he 
was  met  by  the  Democrats,  North  and  South. 
The  questions  then  discussed  are  either  closed 
forever  or  mercifully  suffered  to  remain  unan 
swered.  It  is  much  easier  at  the  present  time 
than  it  was  in  1875,  in  weighing  the  considera 
tions  for  and  against  Mr.  Blaine's  cause,  to  decide 
that  his  action  was  unwise  and  that  it  tended  to 
reopen  sores  that  should  have  been  poulticed  and 


MINORITY    LEADER  139 

bandaged.  No  doubt  it  was  galling  to  him  and  to 
thousands  of  men  who  had  conducted  public 
affairs  during  the  civil  war,  to  see  more  than  one 
fifth  of  the  seats  in  the  House  occupied  by  men 
who  had  been  in  arms  against  the  government. 
No  doubt  it  was  in  their  view  a  travesty  of  justice 
that  the  few  hundred  men  still  left  under  the 
disabilities  imposed  by  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment,  upon  whom  those  disabilities  rested  solely 
because  they  had  not  asked  to  be  relieved,  and 
that  he  in  particular  who  was  to  the  Union  army 
the  head  and  front  of  offending,  should  have 
pardon  thrust  upon  them.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  a  presidential  election  was  ap 
proaching.  Those  who  had  carried  the  country 
through  the  war,  and  had  established  its  policy 
after  the  conflict  ceased,  were  warned  by  the 
election  of  1874  that  there  was  serious  danger 
that  the  policy  would  be  reversed.  It  seemed  to 
Mr.  Elaine  the  surest  way  to  avert  that  which 
they  regarded  as  a  great  calamity,  to  recall  to  the 
minds  of  the  Northern  people  the  sufferings  of 
their  sons  on  Southern  battlefields  and  in  South 
ern  prison  camps.  Mr.  Blaine  himself  was 
already  regarded  as  the  most  probable  candidate 
of  the  Republican  party  for  President.  Moreover, 
as  the  leader  of  the  minority  in  the  House,  it  was 
for  him,  if  for  any  one,  to  revive  the  sentiments 
which  would,  it  was  hoped,  restore  Republican 


140  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

ascendancy  and  prevent  the  results  of  the  war 
from  being  prematurely  put  in  peril. 

On  the  other  hand  the  country  needed  peace 
and  speedy  extinction  of  the  passions  that  for 
a  half-century  and  more  had  smouldered,  glim 
mered,  and  burst  into  a  blaze,  that  had  been  hid 
den  behind  a  screen  of  compromise,  that  had 
burned  more  fiercely  when  the  screen  was  torn 
away,  that  had  threatened  the  whole  land  with 
destruction,  and  that  now,  from  exhaustion  of 
fuel,  might  die  out  if  no  one  fanned  the  embers.  It 
was  asking  much  to  propose  that  the  President 
of  the  Confederate  States,  who  had  not  asked 
for  amnesty,  whether  or  not  he  desired  it,  should 
be  restored  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  every  right  of 
citizenship,  so  that  he  might  have  returned,  with 
out  apology  or  regret  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in 
the  civil  war,  to  the  seat  which  he  had  quitted 
formally,  as  a  self -declared  alien,  fourteen  years 
before.  Nevertheless,  he  would  probably  have 
scorned  to  accept  amnesty,  and  would  almost  cer 
tainly  have  refused  to  reenter  public  life.  In  any 
event,  the  election  of  Mr.  Davis  to  the  Senate 
would  have  aroused  again  the  war-time  senti 
ments  of  the  Northern  people  far  more  effectually 
than  Mr.  Elaine's  eloquent  recital  of  the  terrible 
accusation  brought  against  him  could  do  it. 

If  Mr.  Elaine's  opposition  to  absolute,  gen 
eral,  and  unconditional  amnesty  was  purely 


MINORITY   LEADER  141 

political,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  proposal  of 
it  was  equally  so.  One  man  only  of  all  those  who 
had  asked  Congress  for  a  removal  of  his  disabil 
ities  had  been  refused,  and  in  every  case  the  per 
son  amnestied  had  himself  petitioned  for  the 
relief.  The  same  way  of  relief  was  open  to  those, 
much  less  than  a  thousand  in  number,  upon 
whom  the  disability  still  rested.  Consequently 
the  advocates  of  a  measure  which  reversed  the 
previous  policy  cannot  be  exonerated  from  a 
share  of  the  unpleasantness  which  resulted  from 
their  act.  But  in  fact  both  those  who  approved 
and  those  who  disapproved  the  raising  of  the 
controversy  held  Mr.  Blaine  solely  responsible 
for  it.  Most  of  the  Republican  newspapers  —  all 
those  of  radical  tendencies  —  shouted  with  glee 
at  the  success  of  the  former  Speaker  in  defeating 
"the  southern  brigadiers."  On  the  other  hand, 
all  the  Democrats,  and  not  a  few  Republicans  who 
wished  the  thoughts  of  the  people  to  be  turned 
away  from  the  Southern  question  and  toward 
other  great  topics  of  national  policy,  deprecated 
a  course  which  soon  came  to  be  characterized  by 
the  expressive  phrase  "waving  the  bloody  shirt." 
It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  ultimate  effect 
upon  his  own  political  fortunes  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
speech  on  Jefferson  Davis.  On  the  whole,  the 
effect  seems  to  have  been  harmful.  Prior  to  that 
incident  he  was  justly  classed  among  conserva- 


142  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 


tive  Republicans,  and  as  one  who  had  more  than 
once  stood  between  the  conquered  Southern 
whites  and  those  who  wished  to  keep  them  in  sub 
jection.  By  his  speech  he  imperilled  if  he  did  not 
forfeit  that  reputation,  and  in  the  ensuing  con 
tests  he  found  his  most  determined  opponents  in 
his  own  party,  among  those  with  whom  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  cooperate.  Moreover,  before 
that  time  there  was  a  not  unkindly  feeling  toward 
him  on  the  part  of  many  influential  Democrats.  It 
is  certain  that  the  relentlessness  with  which  they 
attacked  and  pursued  him  a  few  months  later 
was  intensified  by  the  recollection  of  his  imperi 
ous  bearing  on  that  occasion.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  must  be  said  that  his  course  gained  him  immense 
popularity  in  his  own  party,  —  great  and  lasting, 
but  not  universal  popularity.  From  the  moment 
when  he  delivered  the  speech  until  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  the  most  conspicuous  Republican 
in  all  the  land,  the  man  whose  partisans  were 
more  ardent,  devoted,  and  numerous  than  were 
those  of  any  other  man.  But  he  was  also  the  man 
of  all  others  upon  whom  the  whole  party  could 
not  unite,  and  the  man  whom  his  political  oppo 
nents  would  take  the  greatest  delight  in  defeating. 
In  short,  before  that  time  he  had  hardly  a  political 
enemy;  after  it  he  had  no  respite  from  conflict  with 
enemies  more  numerous  and  more  implacable 
than  those  of  any  other  public  man  of  our  time. 


MINORITY   LEADER  143 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Mr.  Blaine  was 
already  looked  upon  as  a  promising  candidate  for 
the  Republican  nomination  for  President  at  the 
election  of  1876.  General  Grant  was  completing 
his  second  term,  and  although  there  was  some 
talk  of  a  third  term  for  him,  the  movement  was 
not  strong.  The  way  seemed  open  for  a  new  man. 
A  resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Springer  of  Illinois, 
early  in  the  session,  placed  Mr.  Blaine  in  a  pe 
culiar  position.  The  resolution  expressed  the 
opinion  of  the  House  that  any  departure  from 
the  time-honored  custom  by  which  presidents 
retired  from  office  after  a  second  term '"would 
be  unwise,  unpatriotic,  and  fraught  with  peril 
to  our  free  institutions."  Mr.  Blaine  was  in  the 
House,  but  did  not  answer  to  his  name;  the  reso 
lution  was  passed,  ayes  233,  noes  18.  A  member 
asked,  during  the  roll-call,  for  a  reading  of  the 
rule  which  requires  members  who  are  present  to 
vote.  He  raised  a  laugh  at  Mr.  Elaine's  expense, 
but  Mr.  Cox,  who  was  in  the  chair,  decided  that 
there  was  no  way  to  enforce  the  rule.  In  fact,  no 
one  was  more  strongly  opposed  than  was  Mr. 
Blaine  to  a  third  term,  but  to  vote  for  the  reso 
lution  might  have  been  regarded  as  helping  to 
remove  an  obstacle  in  his  own  path. 

Early  in  this  same  session  of  Congress  an  invi 
tation  was  extended,  on  behalf  of  the  managers 
of  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  to  the  President, 


144  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

his  Cabinet,  and  all  the  members  of  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  to  visit  Philadelphia  and  inspect 
the  progress  made  in  preparing  the  grounds 
and  buildings  of  the  exhibition.  They  were  con 
veyed  to  Philadelphia  in  special  trains  and  were 
entertained  with  the  most  lavish  hospitality. 
After  a  great  banquet  in  one  of  the  fair  build 
ings,  there  was  speaking.  The  reception  accorded 
to  Mr.  Elaine,  as  he  rose  before  the  great  as 
sembly  to  respond  to  the  call  upon  him,  was 
one  of  extraordinary  cordiality  and  enthusiasm, 
and  was  regarded  as  an  incident  of  great  sig 
nificance. 

All  at  once  he  met  a  check  in  his  triumphant 
progress.  He  was  thrown  upon  the  defensive  by 
the  most  serious  accusation  that  was  ever  brought 
against  him.  Wholly  disproved  in  one  form,  it  was 
revived  in  another,  and  led  to  fresh  charges  that 
were  made,  reiterated,  and  amplified  by  political 
and  personal  enemies.  A  volume  would  be 
needed  to  present  and  discuss  adequately  the 
facts  and  insinuations  regarding  such  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  private  affairs  as  were  deemed  of  public 
importance  in  the  spring  of  1876,  and  in  1884, 
when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency. 
Any  summary,  however  full,  of  the  matters  in 
controversy  will  seem  to  the  most  candid  and 
thorough  student,  still  more  to  the  earnest  ad- 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS         145 

herents  and  opponents  of  Mr.  Blaine,  to  omit 
things  essential  to  a  just  judgment;  and  any  con 
clusion  which  holds  Mr.  Blaine  neither  wholly 
blameless  nor  deserving  of  the  harsh  epithets 
showered  upon  him  by  his  enemies,  is  sure  to  be 
unsatisfactory  to  every  man  who  has  engaged  in 
the  controversy. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1876  rumors  began  to  be 
circulated  among  politicians  that  revelations 
were  soon  to  be  made  that  would  ruin  forever 
the  prospects  of  a  prominent  candidate  for 
President,  and  it  soon  became  known  that  Mr. 
Blaine  was  to  be  the  victim.  When  the  public 
mind  had  been  sufficiently  impressed  with  the 
idea  that  the  disclosures  were  to  be  of  the  most 
damaging  character,  the  accusation  was  made 
public.  It  was  stated  on  the  authority  of  a  gov 
ernment  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  that  the  company  had  purchased 
$75,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort 
Smith  Railroad  Company  belonging  to  Mr. 
Blaine,  and  had  paid  for  them  the  sum  of  $64,000. 
No  one  would  deny  that  it  would  be  an  act  of 
great  impropriety,  to  use  no  stronger  word,  for 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
dispose  of  bonds  at  much  beyond  their  market 
value  —  for  the  interest  on  the  bonds  had  not 
been  paid  for  several  years  —  to  a  company  so 
often  favored  by  congressional  action  as  was  the 


146  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

Union  Pacific.  Mr.  Blaine  took  the  most  effectual 
means  to  disprove  his  connection  with  the  trans 
action.  He  obtained  letters  from  Thomas  A. 
Scott,  who  was  President  of  the  Union  Pacific 
in  1871,  when,  it  was  admitted,  the  company 
bought  the  bonds;  from  Sidney  Dillon,  his  suc 
cessor  in  the  presidency  of  the  road,  who  was  a 
director  and  a  member  of  the  executive  commit 
tee  in  1871 ;  from  E.  H.  Rollins,  the  treasurer;  and 
from  Morton,  Bliss  &  Co.,  the  bankers  through 
whom  the  draft  for  the  purchase  money  was  nego 
tiated.  With  one  accord,  in  the  most  compre 
hensive  and  sweeping  manner,  they  denied  that 
the  transaction  was  with  Mr.  Blaine  or  that  he 
had  any  interest  in  it  or  in  the  proceeds  of  it. 

Armed  with  these  letters  Mr.  Blaine  rose  to  a 
personal  explanation,  in  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  on  April  24,  recited  the  accusation  against 
himself,  and  read  the  testimony  of  these  men,  all 
honorable  and  truthful  gentlemen,  who  were  con 
versant  with  the  whole  business.  It  cannot  be 
disputed  that,  unless  they  were  all  guilty  of  plain 
and  deliberate  falsehood,  this,  the  main  and 
original  accusation  against  Mr.  Blaine,  stands 
absolutely  disproved.  Nevertheless  it  was  revived 
eight  years  later,  elaborate  calculations  were 
made,  in  political  pamphlets  scattered  broadcast 
through  the  country,  of  the  amount  of  Little 
Rock  bonds  originally  held  by  Mr.  Blaine,  and 


THE   MULLIGAN    LETTERS          147 

of  his  disposition  of  them,  to  show  that  he  had 
seventy-five  bonds  that  could  not  be  accounted 
for  —  that  is  to  say,  bonds  that  his  critics  could 
not  account  for.  To  sustain  the  charge  it  was 
necessary  to  impeach  the  veracity  of  Colonel 
Scott,1  who  testified  under  oath  that  the  bonds 
were  his  own,  purchased  of  Josiah  Caldwell 
before  he  had  anything  to  do  with  the  Union 
Pacific  road,  and  that  the  company  took  them  off 
his  hands  at  more  than  the  market  price  as  a  way 
of  remunerating  him  for  his  services  as  president. 
Certainly,  only  those  who  can  believe  nothing 
good  of  Mr.  Blaine  will  maintain  that  he  was  not 
entitled  to  a  verdict  of  absolute  innocence  as  to 
this  transaction. 

In  his  statement  to  the  House  Mr.  Blaine  gave 
so  much  of  an  account  as  he  deemed  necessary  of 
his  connection  with  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort 
Smith  enterprise.  He  did  not  tell  the  whole  story. 
No  one  at  that  time,  and  he  least  of  all,  could 
have  anticipated  that  his  personal  affairs  would 
be  investigated,  that  his  correspondence  would 
be  analyzed,  that  his  spoken  words  would  be 
studied  and  discussed,  in  the  spirit  of  a  prose 
cuting  attorney  endeavoring  to  convict  an  ac- 

1  "Is  the  statement  of  a  man  who  admits  that  he  was  guilty 
of  such  a  transaction  entitled  to  confidence  ?"  —  Mr.  Elaine's 
Record,  published  by  the  Boston  Committee  of  One  Hun 
dred,  1884,  p.  4. 


148  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

cused  person  by  circumstantial  evidence,  It  was 
for  him  an  unfortunate  fact  that  the  transaction, 
which  was  strictly  honorable  on  his  part,  which, 
indeed,  reflected  great  credit  upon  his  sense  of 
honor,  was  also  one  which  for  more  than  one 
reason  he  preferred  not  to  tell  in  all  its  details. 
For  one  thing,  his  pride  forbade  that  he  should 
reveal  the  humiliation  he  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  one  who  professed  to  be  his  friend,  and 
the  "  agony  "  —  it  was  his  own  word  —  he  had 
endured  in  his  efforts  to  hold  harmless  those 
whom  he  had  led  into  the  enterprise.  Moreover, 
he  was  far  from  wishing  that  those  friends  should 
know  that  he  had  a  contract  by  the  terms  of 
which  he  was  to  receive  a  handsome  commission 
for  disposing  of  the  securities  of  the  Little  Rock 
road.  To  be  sure,  he  offered  them  securities 
which,  if  the  road  had  been  successful,  would 
have  made  a  highly  profitable  investment  of  the 
money  they  paid  for  them,  and  he  agreed  to,  and 
afterward  did,  assume  the  loss  which  might 
result  if  the  road  failed.  Nevertheless,  it  could  not 
be  agreeable  to  him  to  have  his  political  friends 
made  aware  that  he  had  been  acting  as  a  paid 
agent  for  the  sale  of  the  bonds.  Such  blame  as 
must  attach  to  him  in  connection  with  the  affair 
arises  from  his  so  acting  as  an  agent  —  a  matter, 
it  will  be  seen,  concerning  solely  his  relations  with 
his  friends  in  Maine,  and  in  no  wise  his  integrity  as 


THE    MULLIGAN    LETTERS  149 

a  public  man  —  and  from  his  efforts,  unavailing 
in  the  end,  to  conceal  the  fact. 

From  the  testimony  given  before  the  Com 
mittee  on  the  Judiciary  on  the  investigation 
ordered  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  May  2, 
1876,  and  from  the  published  correspondence  on 
the  subject,  a  chronological  account  of  the  whole 
affair  may  be  made. 

Two  of  Mrs.  Elaine's  brothers  were  merchants 
in  Boston,  Jacob  and  Eben  C.  StanwoocK  It  was 
by  the  financial  assistance  afforded  by  one  or 
both  of  them  that  Mr.  Blaine  had  been  able  to 
purchase  his  interest  in  the  "  Kennebec  Journal " 
when  he  removed  to  Maine.  James  Mulligan 
was  the  confidential  clerk  of  Jacob  Stan  wood; 
Warren  Fisher,  Jr.,  was  the  business  partner  of 
Eben.  Mr.  Blaine  and  Mr.  Fisher  were  friends 
and  were  closely  associated  in  some  business 
enterprises.  Among  other  things  Mr.  Blaine 
became  interested  with  Fisher,  in  1861,  before  he 
was  even  a  candidate  for  Congress,  in  the  Spencer 
Rifle  Company,  which  had  a  contract  for  the  sale 
of  arms  to  the  government.  In  1863  he  gave  a 
note  to  Fisher  for  the  stock  he  had  purchased. 
In  1864  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Fisher  explaining  the 
meaning  of  a  proposed  amendment  to  a  bill 
pending  in  Congress,  to  the  effect  that  "  where  the 
government  had  contracted  for  the  delivery  of  a 
specific  article  of  manufacture,  and  after  the  con- 


150  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

tract  was  made  with  the  government,  an  addi 
tional  tax  was  levied  on  that  article,  the  govern 
ment  should  stand  the  loss,  and  not  the  seller,"  1 
—  surely  a  reasonable  and  just  provision.  The 
provision  was  of  advantage  to  the  Spencer  Rifle 
Company,  which  was  thus  subjected  to  increased 
taxation  on  rifles  which  it  had  contracted  to  make 
for  the  army.  Mr.  Elaine's  connection  with  the 
Spencer  Rifle  Company  was  never  made  the  basis 
of  any  direct  accusation  against  him,  but  it  was 
used  insinuatingly  as  cumulative  evidence  of  his 
alleged  use  of  his  public  position  to  promote  his 
private  fortunes.  But  there  was  nothing  in  his  con 
nection  with  that  company  that  would  tarnish  the 
reputation  of  the  most  scrupulous  statesman. 

In  June,  1869,  Mr.  Elaine  received  from  Mr. 
Fisher  a  proposition  to  engage  in  another  enter 
prise,  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad. 
Nearly  ten  years  before  the  Civil  War  Congress 
passed  an  act  granting  public  lands  in  some  of  the 
states  to  the  states  themselves,  to  aid  in  the  con 
struction  of  railroads,  and  giving  the  right  of  way 
over  the  public  land  to  such  roads  as  should  be 
built  under  the  terms  of  the  act.  Arkansas  incor 
porated  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad 
Company,  and  granted  a  part  of  the  lands  received 
from  Congress,  conditioned  upon  the  building  of 

1  Mr.  Elaine's  explanation.  —  Congressional  Record,  1st 
Sess.,  44th  Cong.,  p.  3605. 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS  151 

the  road.  Nothing  was  done  under  the  act  of 
incorporation.  After  the  war  closed,  in  1865-66, 
Congress  regranted  the  lands  to  the  Southern 
States.  Again  the  Arkansas  Legislature  incorpor 
ated  the  company  and  granted  a  land  subsidy.  It 
was  not  until  1868,  after  local  attempts  had  failed, 
that  the  charter  came  into  the  hands  of  a  group 
of  Boston  men,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Josiah 
Caldwell;  and  associated  with  him  was  Warren 
Fisher,  Jr.  A  certain  amount  of  capital  was 
raised,  and  the  work  of  constructing  the  road 
began.  The  act  of  1866  required,  as  a  condition 
of  the  free  right  of  way  over  the  public  land,  that 
twenty  miles  of  the  road  should  be  constructed 
within  three  years.  The  time  limit  would  expire 
on  July  28,  1869.  The  promoters  of  the  road 
went  to  Congress  and  asked  that  the  time  limit 
be  extended  to  three  years  from  the  filing  of  the 
certificate  of  incorporation,  the  date  of  which 
was  May  13,  1867,  which  would  give  them  nine 
and  a  half  months  more. 

A  bill  having  this  provision,  and  this  only,  was 
introduced  in  the  Senate,  at  the  first  session  of  the 
Forty-first  Congress,  was  reported  favorably,  and 
passed  on  April  6,  1869,  without  a  word  of  oppo 
sition.  "It  will  not  take  half  a  minute,"  said 
Senator  Rice  of  Arkansas  in  urging  the  Senate 
to  take  up  the  bill.  On  being  sent  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  it  went  to  "  the  Speaker's  table," 


152  JAMES  G.  ELAINE 

in  other  words  to  a  calendar  from  which,  upon 
the  adoption  of  a  motion  to  proceed  to  the  busi 
ness  on  the  Speaker's  table,  bills  were  taken  up 
and  disposed  of  strictly  in  the  order  in  which 
they  were  placed  on  the  calendar.  Three  days 
later,  April  9,  only  one  day  before  the  final  ad 
journment,  the  House  took  up  this  calendar. 
The  Little  Rock  bill  was  the  fifth  item  of  business. 
When  it  was  reached  Mr.  Julian  of  Indiana 
moved  an  amendment  requiring  the  railroad 
company  to  sell  the  lands  to  actual  settlers  only, 
at  a  maximum  price  per  acre.  Mr.  Holman  of 
the  same  state  moved  to  refer  the  bill  to  a  com 
mittee,  which  motion,  if  carried,  would  defeat  the 
bill,  inasmuch  as  the  time  limit  would  expire 
before  the  beginning  of  the  next  session.  The 
House  showed  that  it  was  in  favor  of  the  bill  by 
rejecting  Holman's  motion,  ayes  40,  noes  78. 
Mr.  Julian  then  made  another  motion  to  amend 
by  incorporating  in  the  bill  a  provision  granting 
a  right  of  way  also  to  the  Memphis,  El  Paso  & 
Pacific  Railroad.  This  also  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  bill,  for  the  Memphis  enterprise  had 
been  before  the  Senate  and  had  encountered  op 
position  there. 

At  this  juncture  the  friends  of  the  bill  went  to 
the  Speaker  for  assistance,  as  it  was  natural  and 
proper  for  them  to  do;  and  it  was  also  proper 
for  him  to  give  his  help.  In  the  closing  hours  of 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS          153 

a  session  business  must  be  transacted  quickly 
if  at  all,  and  every  Speaker  does  all  that  is  in 
his  power  to  facilitate  the  passage  of  unobjec 
tionable  measures.  The  Speaker  informed  the 
anxious  friends  of  the  bill  that  Julian's  second 
amendment  was  not  in  order.  When  Mr.  Roots 
of  Arkansas  hesitated  to  make  the  point  of  order, 
as  he  was  not  familiar  with  the  rules,  Mr.  Blaine 
sent  word  to  General  Logan  of  Illinois  to  raise 
the  point.  He  did  so,  and  the  Speaker  promptly 
ruled  out  the  amendment  on  two  grounds,  the 
first  of  which  was  all-sufficient:  that  "it  is  ex 
pressly  prohibited  by  the  rule,  that  where  a  land 
grant  is  under  consideration  another  grant  to  a 
different  company  shall  be  entertained."  In 
order  to  save  time,  the  first  amendment  proposed 
by  Julian  was  allowed  to  be  made,  without  a 
division,  as  it  would  meet  with  no  opposition  in 
the  Senate;  and  the  bill  was  passed  by  a  vote  of 
79  to  28.  *  • 

Nearly  three  months  afterward,  toward  the 
end  of  June,  negotiations  were  begun  between 

1  An  act  was  subsequently  passed  repealing  the  proviso 
relating  to  the  sale  of  public  lands.  Mr.  Blaine  in  referring  to 
this  second  act  said  that  it  was  to  correct  a  mistake  — a  phrase 
which  his  persistent  critics  declared  to  be  a  falsehood.  Yet  it 
was  strictly  true.  The  company  received  its  land  grant  from 
the  State  of  Arkansas,  not  from  the  United  States,  and  Con 
gress  had  no  right  to  prescribe  the  terms  on  which  the  land 
should  be  sold. 


154  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Blame  and  Fisher,  which  were  referred  to  in  a 
letter  from  Mr.  Elaine  as  "your  offer  to  admit 
me  to  a  participation  in  the  new  railroad  enter 
prise,"  which  he  deemed  "in  every  respect  as 
generous  as  I  could  expect  or  desire ; "  and  he 
remarked  in  closing  his  letter,  "  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  shall  prove  a  dead-head  in  the  enterprise,  if  I 
once  embark  in  it.  I  see  various  channels  in 
which  I  know  I  can  be  useful."  These  sentences 
were  often  quoted,  with  abundant  sneers,  in  the 
discussion  of  the  "Mulligan  letters,"  as  if  they 
conveyed  a  suggestion  that  Mr.  Blaine  was  con 
templating  the  commission  of  "various"  im 
proprieties  in  order  not  to  be  a  "dead-head." 
The  natural,  obvious,  and,  in  view  of  what  took 
place  afterward,  the  only  possible  interpretation 
to  be  put  upon  his  words,  was  that  he  was  confi 
dent  that  he  could  dispose  of  the  securities  of  the 
road  to  many  investors,  and  his  services  in  that 
direction,  not  his  services  as  a  pubjjc  man,  were' 
the  consideration  for  his  being  admitted  to  a 
share  in  the  enterprise. 

Fisher  had  evidently  intimated  to  Blaine  that 
Caldwell  might  do  more  than  make  a  favorable 
contract  for  the  sale  of  the  railroad  bonds.  It 
was  a  common  if  not  a  universal  custom  at  that 
time  for  those  who  controlled  a  charter  for  the 
building  of  a  railroad  which  was  aided  by  a 
government  subsidy  in  land  or  bonds,  to  divide 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS          155 

the  whole  interest  into  a  certain  number  of 
shares,  and,  as  owners  of  the  franchise,  to  com 
pensate  themselves  by  a  system  which  had  the 
practical  effect  of  taking  a  commission  on  all 
the  securities  sold.  No  one  at  the  present  day 
would  defend  the  practice;  but  in  the  time  of 
extensive  railroad  construction,  when  great  risks 
were  incurred  in  building  lines  into  uninhab 
ited  wildernesses  and  across  barren  plains,  no 
one  objected  to  it  or  regarded  it  as  dishonorable. 
The  shares  of  the  owners  of  franchises  were  often 
subdivided  in  order  to  bring  new  elements  of  fin 
ancial  strength  to  an  undertaking.  In  Elaine's 
letter  to  Fisher  he  referred  to  a  suggestion  that 
Caldwell  might  turn  over  to  him  a  part  of  one 
of  the  "  bed-rock  "  shares,  and  expressed  a  hope 
that  Caldwell  "  would  make  the  proposition  defi 
nite."  He  feared  that  if  the  proposition  were 
postponed  until  the  success  of  the  enterprise 
was  assured,  Caldwell  "  might  grow  reluctant  to 
part  with  the  share." 

Mr.  Elaine  began  at  once  to  work  in  the  "  vari 
ous  channels"  he  had  foreseen,  without  waiting 
to  make  a  formal  contract  with  Fisher.  By  Sep 
tember  he  had  disposed  of  securities  that  would 
bring  to  the 'company  $130,000  in  money;  and 
on  September  5  Fisher  made  a  contract  by 
which,  upon  the  payment  of  the  money  he  was  to 
deliver  to  those  to  whom  Elaine  had  disposed 


156  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  the  securities  $1000  in  the  first  mortgage 
bonds  of  the  company,  ten  shares  of  preferred 
stock,  and  ten  shares  of  common  stock  for  each 
$1000  paid,  and  Elaine  was  himself  to  receive, 
upon  the  fulfilment  of  the  contract,  $130,000  of 
land  grant  mortgage  bonds,  and  $32,500  of  first 
mortgage  bonds.  One  of  the  subscribers  with 
drew  after  making  a  single  payment,  and  the 
actual  amount  of  money  paid  under  the  contract 
was  $125,000.  There  were  afterward  four  other 
contracts,  covering  $35,000  of  first  mortgage 
bonds,  $28,000  of  land  bonds,  and  both  preferred 
and  common  stock,  for  disposing  of  which  Mr. 
Blaine  was  to  receive  compensation  in  money. 

Many  letters  passed  between  Fisher  and 
Blaine  while  these  transactions  were  in  progress. 
The  only  ones  which  it  is  necessary  to  notice  here 
are  those  which  relate  to  the  charge  most  fre 
quently  brought  against  Blaine.  The  definite 
proposition  which  Caldwell  was  expected  to  make 
was  not  made.  In  order  to  "jog  his  memory" 
Blaine  wrote  to  Fisher,  in  October,  1869,  an  ac 
count  of  the  incident  in  the  House  at  the  close 
of  the  preceding  session.  He  wrote  that  he 
"could  not  do  otherwise  than  sustain  it,"- 
the  point  of  order  against  Julian's  amendment ; 
and  "at  that  time  I  had  never  seen  Mr.  Cald 
well  ;  but  you  can  tell  him  that  without  knowing 
it  I  did  him  a  great  favor."  In  another  letter  he 


THE    MULLIGAN    LETTERS  157 

enclosed  a  clipping  from  the  "Congressional 
Globe"  containing  the  official  account  of  the 
affair,  and  again  he  said,  "  Of  course  it  was  my 
plain  duty  to  make  the  ruling  when  the  point 
was  thus  raised."  This  second  letter  was  in 
tended  for  CaldwelPs  eye,  "if  you  think  it  ex 
pedient,"  as  he  wrote  to  Fisher  by  the  same 
mail.  "  I  have  endeavored  in  writing  it  not  to  be 
indelicate'''  There  is  no  evidence  on  the  point 
whether  Fisher  ever  showed  the  letters  or  the 
clipping  from  the  "  Globe  "  to  Mr.  Caldwell.  At 
all  events  Caldwell  did  not  turn  over  any  share 
of  the  franchise-owners'  "bed-rock"  privileges. 
It  is  difficult  for  one  who  is  not  previously  con 
vinced  that  Elaine  was  guilty  of  impropriety  in 
the  whole  transaction  to  see  in  this  incident  of 
it  anything  reprehensible.  Undoubtedly  he  was 
anxious  to  bring  Caldwell  to  terms,  and  greatly 
desired  a  share  in  the  profits  of  the  franchise. 
He  said  so,  in  these  letters  to  Fisher.  One  has 
either  to  suppose  this  man  to  have  been  so  reck 
less  in  his  wickedness  as  to  expose  his  wish  to 
traffic  his  official  position  in  a  letter  written  in 
black  and  white,  or  to  conclude  that  he  had  no 
thought  of  so  base  a  nature.  Surely,  if  he  had 
intended  or  expected  to  use  the  favor  he  had 
done  to  Caldwell  to  extort  payment  from  him, 
he  would  not  have  been  careful  to  say  twice  that 
he  could  not  help  taking  the  course  he  did.  More- 


158  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

over,  he  even  left  it  to  Fisher  to  decide  whether  it 
was  expedient  to  mention  the  matter  to  Caldwell 
at  all.  On  the  whole,  the  worst  that  can  justly  be 
said  of  his  reference  to  the  proceedings  in  Con 
gress,  is  well  expressed  by  his  own  word,  "  indeli 
cate." 

About  a  year  after  the  Little  Rock  contracts 
were  made,  there  was  the  beginning  of  another 
transaction,  never  consummated,  which  played  a 
large  part  in  the  subsequent  relations  between 
Fisher  and  Blaine.  The  Northern  Pacific  Rail 
road  was  being  financed  by  Jay  Cooke  and  his 
associates.  Blaine  wrote  to  Fisher  in  November, 
1870,  that  he  was  able  to  control  the  assignment 
of  one  one-hundred-and-ninety-second  part  of 
the  franchise  of  the  company.  He  said:  "The 
chance  is  a  very  rare  one.  I  can't  touch  it,  but 
I  obey  my  first  and  best  impulse  in  offering  it  to 
you."  The  price  of  the  interest  was  $25,000,  but 
the  holder  came  under  "obligation  to  take  a 
large  amount  of  the  bonds  at  ninety,  and  hold 
them  not  less  than  three  years."  It  appears  from 
the  subsequent  correspondence  that  the  offer  was 
accepted  by  Fisher,  and  the  sum  of  $25,000  was 
paid  to  Blaine,  who  for  some  reason  was  not 
able  to  obtain  the  share  from  the  concession- 
naires,  and  consequently  could  not  deliver  it  to 
Fisher.  Ultimately  the  money  was  returned  to 
Blaine  and  by  him  restored  to  Fisher. 


THE    MULLIGAN   LETTERS          159 

In  December  of  the  same  year  the  Little  Rock 
road  was  already  in  financial  straits.  Mr.  Blaine 
had  to  explain  to  those  to  whom  he  had  disposed 
of  bonds  that  the  January  coupon  was  not  to  be 
paid,  and  "  promised  them  individually  to  make 
it  right  in  the  future."  He  added  in  a  letter  to 
Fisher  that  he  did  not  use  the  name  of  the  com 
pany,  and  committed  himself  only.  In  January, 
1871,  at  the  urgent  soli  citation  of  Fisher,  he 
raised  $25,000  on  his  own  credit,  and  gave  his 
own  notes,  for  the  benefit  of  the  company.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  woe  for  him.  It  is  unneces 
sary  to  follow  the  business  through  to  the  end, 
in  detail.  From  that  time  the  correspondence 
between  Fisher  and  Blaine  indicates  that  there 
was  constant  friction  between  them.  In  April, 
1871,  Blaine  wrote  to  Caldwell  imploring  him 
to  provide  the  means  for  the  payment  of  his 
notes  for  the  $25,000  raised  for  the  company. 
Caldwell  merely  turned  the  letter  over  to  Fisher 
with  "  I  hope  you  can  help  him.  I  would,  if  it 
were  in  my  power.  Blaine  is  an  important  man  for 
us  to  have  feel  all  right  toward  us."  This  last 
sentence  was  used  afterward  by  Blaine's  ene 
mies  as  an  additional  proof  that  he  could  be 
depended  upon  to  sell  his  official  influence.  But 
aside  from  the  fact  that  it  was  not  written  by  him, 
the  circumstance  that  he  had  raised  for  the  com 
pany  not  far  from  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars 


160  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

is  sufficient  to  account  for  his  being  regarded 
as  "  an  important  man  for  us."  In  June  Elaine 
again  wrote  to  Fisher  setting  forth  his  financial 
troubles.  His  notes  had  not  been  provided  for, 
the  bonds  due  him  under  his  contracts  had  not 
been  delivered,  and  he  had  not  received  a  dollar 
of  money  under  the  contracts  which  provided 
that  kind  of  compensation  for  disposing  of  the 
railroad  company's  bonds.  Moreover,  he  was 
responsible  to  his  friends,  by  verbal  agreement, 
for  $10,000,  the  amount  of  coupons  not  paid  on 
their  bonds.  He  made  a  proposition  in  the  nature 
of  a  compromise,  to  get  himself  out  of  his  pressing 
difficulties.  Nothing  seems  to  have  come  of  that, 
but  in  September  Fisher  was  demanding  the 
Northern  Pacific  securities  for  which  the  money 
had  been  paid,  and  reminded  Elaine  that  Cald- 
well  had  paid  back  the  $25,000  borrowed  in  Jan 
uary.  Elaine  replied  the  next  day  that  he  had 
been  unable  to  get  the  Northern  Pacific  securities, 
and  that  it  was  a  great  mistake  to  say  that  Mr. 
Caldwell  had  paid  him,  for  he  had  received  only 
$6000  of  the  $25,000. 

So  the  correspondence  went  on  for  a  year 
longer.  Each  was  complaining  of  the  other.  Both 
were  desirous  of  a  settlement,  but  while  Fisher 
was  demanding  a  settlement  of  the  matters  that 
would  extricate  himself  from  difficulty,  Elaine 
insisted  that  his  own  claims  should  be  considered 


THE    MULLIGAN   LETTERS          161 

at  the  same  time.  Ultimately  some 'sort  of  an 
agreement  was  reached,  Fisher  received  the 
$25,000  for  the  Northern  Pacific  interest,  Blaine 
obtained  the  bonds  due  him,  and  with  the  pro 
ceeds  he  partially  made  good  the  losses  of  his 
friends.  For  the  rest  of  the  obligation  incurred 
toward  them  he  drew  upon  his  own  means,  and 
his  connection  with  the  financing  of  the  Little 
Rock  road  came  to  an  end.  His  own  losses  by  the 
transaction  were  large. 

There  was  one  other  letter  in  connection  with 
the  affair,  which  was  not  —  as  several  of  those 
already  mentioned  were  not  —  among  the  "  Mul 
ligan  letters"  proper,  but  was  made  public  in 
1884,  when  Mr.  Blaine  was  a  candidate  for  Presi 
dent.  Of  course  it  was  furnished  by  Fisher.  In 
April,  1876,  when  he  was  preparing  for  his  first 
defence  against  the  Union  Pacific  charge,  he 
wrote  to  Fisher  a  letter  which  was  marked  "  con 
fidential,"  asking  him  to  write  and  send  to  him 
self  a  letter,  a  draft  of  which  he  enclosed,  giving 
an  account  of  his,  Elaine's,  connection  with  the 
Little  Rock  enterprise.  It  was  not  a  full  account, 
for  it  made  no  mention  of  the  sale  of  securities 
to  Maine  investors,  nor  of  many  of  the  circum 
stances  which  have  just  been  narrated.  As  has 
already  been  remarked,  Mr.  Blaine  had  no  idea 
at  the  time  that  the  affair  would  be  pursued  to  the 
extent  of  investigating  the  Little  Rock  matter, 


162  JAMES  G.   BLATNE 

which  was  only  indirectly  connected  with  the 
accusation  brought  against  him;  and,  as  was 
previously  remarked,  he  had  strong  reasons  for 
wishing  that  the  whole  story  should  not  be  told. 
But  he  could  write  to  Fisher  of  the  draft  letter 
which  he  enclosed,  "  The  letter  is  strictly  true,  is 
honorable  to  you  and  to  me,  and  will  stop  the 
mouths  of  slanderers  at  once."  That  is  not  the 
language  of  one  who  writes  confidentially  to  an 
honorable  man  asking  him  to  put  his  name  to  a 
lie.  Mr.  Elaine  added  a  postscript,  "Burn  this 
letter,"  —  also  a  phrase  which  his  enemies  fre 
quently  repeated  in  print  and  on  the  stump  as 
proof  that  he  was  asking  for  a  falsehood.  In 
reality  it  is  no  more  than  an  emphatic  repetition 
of  the  word  "confidential"  at  the  top  of  the 
letter.1  Undoubtedly  Blaine  did  not  wish  the 
fact  to  be  known  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 

1  It  may  be  added  that  it  was  almost  a  habit  with  Blaine 
to  emphasize  "confidential"  by  some  such  phrase.  A  good 
example  may  be  found  on  a  later  page  of  this  book,  in  the 
letter  to  General  Sherman  written  just  before  the  Republi 
can  convention  of  1884.  The  present  writer  has  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Blaine  upon  a  personal  business  matter  in  which  a  similar 
phrase  is  used.  Mr.  Andrew  Devine,  long  a  confidential  sten 
ographer  for  Blaine,  reports  that  when  this  letter  to  Fisher  was 
first  published  in  facsimile  he  called  Elaine's  attention  to  the 
handwriting  of  the  sentence,  "Burn  this  letter,"  and  insisted 
that  it  was  a  forgery.  Blaine  was  not  wholly  convinced,  and 
remarked  that  it  did  n't  matter  one  way  or  the  other,  for  it 
would  have  been  just  like  him  to  write  it. 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS  163 

letter  he  expected  from  Fisher.  To  ask  Fisher 
to  give  his  own  account  of  the  Little  Rock  busi 
ness  would  probably  have  brought  a  letter  con 
taining  some  of  the  facts  which  Blaine  wished 
withheld.  His  sending  a  draft  letter  and  his  re 
quest  that  the  communication  enclosing  it  should 
be  destroyed  is  not  inconsistent  with  absolute 
innocence  of  wrong-doing,  and  can  therefore  not 
be  used  even  as  cumulative  proof  that  he  was 
guilty  of  wrong-doing.  It  will  be  observed  that 
Fisher  neither  wrote  the  letter,  nor  burned  that 
which  he  received,  but  turned  the  double  com 
munication  over  to  Elaine's  enemies  at  a  time 
when  a  misconstruction  would  do  him  the  most 
harm. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  investigation  by 
the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  ordered  May  2,  1876,  it  was 
evident  that  it  was  an  investigation  of  Blaine, 
and  of  him  alone,  although  his  name  was  not 
mentioned  in  the  resolution.  He  was  himself  a 
witness  and  made  oath  to  the  truth  of  his  denial 
of  any  ownership  of  or  interest  in  the  seventy-five 
bonds  sold  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com 
pany.  Scott,  Dillon,  and  others,  directors  in  the 
company,  testified  either  to  positive  knowledge 
that  Elaine's  statement  was  true,  or  to  ignorance 
as  to  the  ownership  of  the  bonds.  Then  it  be 
came  noised  abroad  that  Warren  Fisher,  Jr. 


1C4  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

and  James  Mulligan  were  coming  from  Boston  to 
testify  before  the  committee  against  Mr.  Elaine. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  that  Fisher 
would  be  a  hostile  witness.  Blaine  had  also  the 
best  of  reasons  for  expecting  that  Mulligan  would 
do  him  all  the  injury  that  was  in  his  power. 
It  has  been  mentioned  that  Mulligan  was  for  a 
long  time  the  confidential  clerk  of  Jacob  Stan- 
wood,  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Blaine.  He  was  so  com 
petent  and  trustworthy  that  Stanwood  gave  him 
an  interest  in  some  of  his  ventures.  But  a  quar 
rel  arose  between  them,  and  they  separated. 
Mulligan  made  a  large  claim,  some  $30,000, 
on  Stanwood,  which  Stanwood  deemed  exces 
sive.  In  the  course  of  the  controversy  between 
them,  Mr.  Blaine,  at  the  request  of  both,  put 
in  writing  the  points  upon  which  they  agreed, 
but  a  clause  which  he  inserted  in  the  paper,  to  the 
effect  that  the  settlement  was  to  be  final,  put 
Mulligan  in  a  rage,  and  when,  later,  the  actual 
settlement  was  made  on  the  basis  of  an  allow 
ance  of  about  half  the  claim,  he  unjustly  laid  his 
failure  to  obtain  more  at  Mr.  Elaine's  door,  and 
vowed  vengeance.  This  was  several  years  before 
the  investigation,  for  Mr.  Stanwood  died  in  1873. 
Mulligan  became  a  clerk  for  Warren  Fisher,  and 
was  of  course  conversant  with  all  the  business 
transactions  between  him  and  Blaine.  The  time 
had  come  to  execute  his  threat,  and  he  and 


THE    MULLIGAN   LETTERS          165 

Fisher  were  in  accord  as  to  object  and  method  of 
accomplishing  it. 

On  the  day  when  Mulligan  began  his  testi 
mony  it  became  known  that  he  had  in  his  posses 
sion  and  intended  to  lay  before  the  committee  a 
large  number  of  letters  from  Blaine  to  Fisher. 
They  had  been  turned  over  to  Mulligan  for  that 
purpose.  Blaine  determined,  if  possible,  to  pre 
vent  the  publication  of  them  —  letters  covering 
many  and  complicated  business  matters,  writ 
ten  years  before,  often  in  haste  and  in  confi 
dence,  having  only  the  most  remote  bearing  upon 
the  subject  under  investigation,  which  were  about 
to  be  read  by  a  hostile  witness,  with  his  own 
explanation,  before  a  committee  of  political  ene 
mies  of  the  person  who  wrote  them,  bent  on 
destroying  his  future.  In  the  evening  Blaine 
called  upon  Mulligan  at  his  hotel,  and  when  he 
returned  home  he  carried  the  letters  with  him. 
Mulligan  gave  a  highly  fanciful  account  of  the 
interview,  which  differed  widely  from  Elaine's 
version.  It  would  serve  no  good  purpose  to  give 
either  story  in  detail.  Those  who  are  disposed 
to  hold  Blaine  guilty  of  every  sort  of  duplicity 
and  breach  of  faith  will  accept  Mulligan's  ima 
ginative  statements.  But  Blaine  asserted  that 
he  violated  no  promise,  that  he  urged  Mulli 
gan  to  return  the  letters  to  Fisher,  a  request 
which  Fisher  repeated,  and  that  it  was  only 


166  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

when  Mulligan  asserted  his  intention  to  publish 
the  letters  if  any  one  impugned  his  motives  that 
he  decided  to  retain  them.  For  Mulligan  had 
permitted  him  to  take  them  for  examination.  Of 
course  Mulligan  had  no  right  to  have  and  publish 
private  letters  written  neither  by  nor  to  him. 
Either  Fisher  or  Blaine,  and  no  other  person, 
was  entitled  to  possess  them. 

When  Mr.  Blaine  returned  to  his  home,  he 
entered  the  library  and  tossed  the  package  on 
the  table,  remarking,  with  a  laugh,  "  Well,  there 
are  the  letters."  The  next  day  the  committee 
demanded  the  production  of  the  letters,  but 
Blaine  declined  "  at  this  time  "  to  produce  them. 
He  consulted  the  Hon.  Jeremiah  S.  Black  and 
the  Hon.  Matt.  H.  Carpenter,  who  after  examin 
ing  the  letters  declared  "  that  the  letters  and 
papers  aforesaid  have  no  relevancy  whatever  to 
the  matter  under  inquiry,"  —  a  statement  which, 
notwithstanding  all  that  was  said  then,  and  that 
has  been  said  since,  was  strictly  true,  —  and  they 
advised  him  to  resist  to  the  last  extremity  any 
demand  for  their  surrender,  as  being  "  most  un 
just,  tyrannical,  as  well  as  illegal."  Acting  on 
this  advice,  Mr.  Blaine  again  and  persistently 
refused  to  give  up  the  papers. 

But  having  vindicated  his  right  to  maintain 
the  privacy  of  his  own  correspondence  relating  to 
transactions  which  not  only  had  no  reference 


THE    MULLIGAN    LETTERS          167 

to  the  matter  under  investigation  by  the  com 
mittee,  but  were  not  even  a  proper  subject  of 
inquiry  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  fore 
saw  that  to  withhold  them  from  the  public  would 
confirm  the  suspicions  of  his  enemies  and  give 
rise  to  doubts  among  his  friends.  He  therefore 
determined  to  read  them  to  the  House.  There 
have  been  few  more  dramatic  scenes  in  the  his 
tory  of  Congress  than  that  when,  on  the  5th  of 
June,  1876,  Mr.  Blaine  rose  to  a  personal  expla 
nation,  in  the  course  of  which  he  read  the  famous 
Mulligan  letters. 

He  first  recited  at  some  length  the  fact  that 
under  three  different  resolutions  adopted  at  that 
session,  in  neither  of  which  his  name  was  men 
tioned,  his  conduct  and  his  alone  was  under 
investigation.  Having  referred  to  the  fact  of  Mul 
ligan's  going  to  Washington  with  his  package  of 
letters,  to  his  own  act  in  obtaining  them,  and  to 
the  demand  for  them  and  his  refusal  to  surrender 
them,  he  asked,"  Would  any  gentleman  stand  up 
here  and  tell  me  that  he  is  willing  and  ready  to 
have  his  private  correspondence  scanned  over 
and  made  public  for  the  last  eight  or  ten  years  ? 
Does  it  imply  guilt  ?  Does  it  imply  wrong-doing  ? 
Does  it  imply  any  sense  of  weakness  that  a  man 
will  protect  his  private  correspondence  ?  No,  sir; 
it  is  the  first  instinct  to  do  it,  and  it  is  the  last 
outrage  upon  any  man  to  violate  it."  But  al- 


168  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

though  he  was  ready  to  maintain  his  right  and 
to  defy  the  power  of  the  House  to  compel  him  to 
produce  the  letters,  "  I  am  not  afraid  to  show  the 
letters.  Thank  God  Almighty,  I  am  not  ashamed 
to  show  them.  There  they  are  [holding  up  a 
package  of  letters].  There  is  the  very  original 
package.  And  with  some  sense  of  humiliation, 
with  a  mortification  I  do  not  pretend  to  conceal, 
with  a  sense  of  outrage  which  I  think  any  man  in 
my  position  would  feel,  I  invite  the  confidence  of 
44,000,000  of  my  countrymen  while  I  read  those 
letters  from  this  desk." 

This  sensational  announcement  was  received 
with  hot  applause  on  the  Republican  side  of  the 
House,  and  the  Speaker  and  Mr.  Elaine  himself 
urged  that  there  should  be  "no  manifestation." 
Elaine  then  read  all  the  letters,  with  comments 
and  explanations.  Mulligan's  memorandum  was 
also  read  by  the  clerk,  at  his  request.  Elaine 
then  recapitulated  briefly,  with  reference  to  the 
specific  charge  against  him,  that  all  the  per 
sons  who  could  have  any  knowledge  of  the  sale 
of  seventy-five  Little  Rock  bonds  to  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  had  testified  under 
oath  that  he,  Elaine,  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
There  was  not  in  any  one  of  the  Mulligan  letters, 
and  is  not  in  any  of  the  supplementary  letters 
made  public  in  1884,  any  reference  to  a  sale 
of  bonds  to  or  for  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 


THE    MULLIGAN    LETTERS       169 

Company.1    Then  ensued  a  scene  which  those 
who  witnessed  it  followed  with  breathless  atten- 

1  Lest  it  be  said  that  there  is  here  a  suppression  of  a  part  of 
the  truth,  the  following  facts  and  citations  are  necessary. 
Mulligan's  memorandum  contained  this  reference  to  one  of 
the  letters:  — 

"No.  12.  Aprl  18,  1872,  admits  the  $64,000  sale  bonds, 
and  paid  the  money  over  in  forty-eight  hours  to  Maine 
parties." 

Mr.  Blaine  commented,  when  this  was  read  by  the  clerk, 
'There  is  not  a  word  said  about  it  in  the  letter." 

The  purchase  of  the  seventy-five  bonds  by  the  Union  Pa 
cific  Railroad  Company  was  voted  by  the  directors  on  De 
cember  16,  1871.  On  the  16th  of  April,  1872,  Fisher  wrote 
^a  highly  offensive  letter  to  Blaine  in  the  course  of  which  he 
said:  — 

"Of  all  the  parties  connected  with  the  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  Railroad  no  one  has  been  so  fortunate  as  yourself 
in  obtaining  money  out  of  it.  You  obtained  subscriptions 
from  your  friends  in  Maine  for  the  building  of  the  Little  Rock 
and  Fort  Smith  Railroad.  Out  of  their  subscriptions  you  ob 
tained  a  large  amount  both  of  bonds  and  money,  free  of  cost 
to  you.  I  have  your  own  figures,  and  know  the  amount. 
Owing  to  your  political  position,  you  were  able  to  work  off  all 
your  bonds  at  a  very  high  price;  and  the  fact  is  well  known 
to  others  as  well  as  myself.  Would  your  friends  in  Maine  be 
satisfied  if  they  knew  the  facts  ?" 

It  was  in  answer  to  this  letter  that  Blaine,  doubtless  with 
a  sense  of  humiliation  at  being  thus  addressed,  with  an 
implied  threat  that  his  Maine  friends  should  be  made  aware 
of  the  facts,  wrote  on  the  18th :  — 

"You  have  been  for  some  time  laboring  under  a  totally 
erroneous  impression  in  regard  to  my  results  in  the  Fort 
Smith  matter.  The  sales  of  bonds  which  you  spoke  of  my  mak 
ing,  and  which  you  seem  to  have  thought  were  for  my  own 


170  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

tion.  Mr.  Elaine  referred  to  the  fact  that  there 
was  one  witness  whom  he  could  not  have,  to 
whom  the  Judiciary  Committee  was  asked  to 
send  a  cable  despatch,  —  to  Josiah  Caldwell,  — 
and  he  asked  the  chairman,  Mr.  Knott  of  Ken 
tucky,  if  that  despatch  was  sent. 

Mr.  Knott  replied  that  "Judge  Hunton  and 
myself  have  both  endeavored  to  get  Mr.  Cald- 
well's  address  and  have  not  yet  got  it."  Then 
ensued  this  colloquy,  as  reported  in  the  "  Con 
gressional  Record : "  — 

MR.  BLAINE.  Has  the  gentleman  from  Ken 
tucky  received  a  despatch  from  Caldwell  ? 

MR.  KNOTT.    I  will  explain  that  directly. 

MR.  BLAINE.    I  want  a  categorical  answer. 

MR.  KNOTT.  I  have  received  a  despatch  pur 
porting  to  be  from  Mr.  Caldwell. 

benefit,  were  quite  otherwise.  I  did  not  have  the  money  in  my 
possession  forty-eight  hours,  but  paid  it  over  directly  to  the 
parties  whom  I  tried  by  every  means  in  my  power  to  protect 
from  loss.  I  am  very  sure  that  you  have  little  idea  of  the 
labors,  the  losses,  the  efforts,  and  the  sacrifices  I  have  made 
within  the  past  year  to  save  those  innocent  persons  who  in 
vested  on  my  request,  from  personal  loss.  And  I  say  to  you 
to-night,  solemnly,  that  I  am  immeasurably  worse  off  than 
if  I  had  never  touched  the  Fort  Smith  matter." 

There  is,  it  will  be  seen,  merely  a  general  statement  on 
Fisher's  part  that  Blaine  had  sold  bonds;  on  Elaine's  part 
an  explanation  of  the  purpose  of  selling  and  of  the  disposition 
he  had  made  of  the  proceeds. 


THE  MULLIGAN  LETTERS  171 

MR.  BLAINE.    You  did? 

MR.  KNOTT.    How  did  you  know  I  got  it  ? 

MR.  BLAINE.  When  did  you  get  it  ?  I  want  the 
gentleman  from  Kentucky  to  answer  when  he 
got  it.  , 

MR.  KNOTT.    Answer  my  question  first. 

MR.  BLAINE.  I  never  heard  of  it  until  yester 
day. 

MR.  KNOTT.    How  did  you  hear  it  ? 

MR.  BLAINE.  I  heard  you  got  a  despatch  last 
Thursday  morning  at  eight  o'clock  from  Josiah 
Caldwell  completely  and  absolutely  exonerating 
me  from  this  charge,  and  you  have  suppressed 
it.  [Protracted  applause  upon  the  floor  and  in 
the  galleries.]  I  want  the  gentleman  to  answer. 
[After  a  pause.]  Does  the  gentleman  from  Ken 
tucky  decline  to  answer? 

Of  course  there  was  a  long  and  heated  debate, 
exceedingly  interesting,  which  it  is  impossible  to 
summarize.  For  the  time  being  the  accusers, 
or,  if  another  term  be  preferred,  the  court,  were 
on  trial.  Mr.  Blaine  in  the  course  of  his  speech 
had  made  many  charges  of  unfairness  toward 
himself  on  the  part  of  the  committee,  and  these 
charges  were  taken  up  in  turn,  denied  and  ex 
plained  by  Judge  Hunton  of  Virginia.  Then 
Mr.  Knott  gave  his  own  account  of  the  incident 
relating  to  the  cable  despatch.  He  had  not  "  sup- 


172  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

pressed  "  it,  for  he  had  shown  it  to  several  of  his 
friends,  but  to  no  Republican.  He  even  said  that 
"to  tell  the  truth  about  it,  after  the  day  that  I 
received  it  I  gave  but  little,  if  any,  thought  to  it 
until  the  subject  was  brought  up  here."  He  in 
timated  a  doubt  if  the  despatch  came  from  Cald- 
well.  It  was  dated  simply  "London,"  and  he 
did  not  know  or  try  to  find  out  whether  it  was 
authentic  or  not.  Mr.  Knott  refused  to  read  the 
despatch. 

Nothing  further  was  developed  in  the  investi 
gation  by  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary.  In 
deed  the  inquiry  was  virtually  dropped.  There 
was  a  protracted  wrangle,  which  consumed  much 
of  the  time  during  the  sessions  of  the  House  on 
the  8th  and  9th  of  June,  over  a  motion  by  Mr. 
Elaine  to  reconsider  a  vote  ordering  the  printing 
of  testimony  taken  in  the  case,  in  order  to  in 
clude  the  whole  of  it,  and  also  the  Caldwell 
despatch.  The  presiding  officer  —  Mr.  Speaker 
Kerr  was  not  in  the  chair  —  ruled  steadily 
against  Blaine,  and  the  majority  upheld  him  and 
defeated  Elaine's  motion.  There  was  constant 
disorder;  Blaine  was  unable  to  obtain  a  hear 
ing,  and  was  repeatedly  ordered  to  take  his  seat. 
The  9th  of  June  was  the  last  day  on  which  he 
ever  appeared  in  the  House  as  a  member.  On 
the  llth,  the  Sunday  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Cincinnati  convention,  he  was  prostrated  by  a 


THE  MULLIGAN   LETTERS  173 

sunstroke.  The  Judiciary  Committee  postponed 
the  hearing  from  time  to  time  owing  to  his  ill 
ness,  and  when  Congress  met  again  Blaine  had 
been  transferred  to  the  Senate.  The  inquiry 
therefore  came  to  an  end. 

Although  this  series  of  events,  which  had  the 
most  important  effects  upon  Mr.  Elaine's  polit 
ical  career,  has  been  told  at  such  great  length, 
and  with  a  sincere  effort  to  omit  or  suppress 
nothing  essential  to  a  correct  understanding  of 
the  whole  affair,  the  writer  cannot  flatter  him 
self  that  he  will  escape  the  criticisms  either  of 
Elaine's  most  ardent  partisans  or  of  his  persist 
ent  detractors.  Nor,  probably,  will  the  writer's 
judgment  upon  the  whole  case  be  fully  accepted 
in  any  quarter.  That  judgment  is  that  on  the 
main,  in  fact  upon  the  only,  charge  made  against 
his  integrity  and  independence  as  a  public  man, 
Mr.  Blaine  was,  in  the  words  of  the  late  Senator 
Hoar,  "triumphantly  acquitted."1  There  was 
not  a  tittle  of  evidence  which  rose  above  the 

i  Mr.  Hoar  always  held  this  opinion.  In  his  pamphlet 
published  in  1884,  entitled  "  Good  Advice  to  Young  Voters," 
—  no  publisher  is  named, —  he  says  that  "  Mr.  Schurz's  adroit 
and  skilful  speech  has  failed  to  change  the  opinion  I  then 
[1876]  formed  that  the  charge  against  Mr.  Blaine  wholly  fails." 
Hoar  was  a  member  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  which  was 
charged  with  the  investigation.  He  repeats  this  judgment  in 
his  volume  of  reminiscences  published  only  a  year  or  two  be 
fore  his  death. 


174  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

grade  of  second-hand  hearsay  that  connected 
him  in  the  remotest  degree  with  the  sale  of  Little 
Rock  bonds  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com 
pany.  On  the  other  hand  there  was  direct  and 
positive  evidence  that  the  bonds  were  not  his; 
and  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  believe  him  guilty, 
to  hold  that  several  gentlemen  of  otherwise 
honorable  character  and  standing  perjured 
themselves  to  support  Mr.  Elaine  in  his  own 
perjury. 

Moreover  there  was  nothing  morally  or  polit 
ically  wrong  in  his  engaging  in  the  Little  Rock 
enterprise;  and  his  relations  to  and  dealings 
with  Warren  Fisher  were  a  private  matter  which 
should  never  have  been  made  public  and  which 
Blaine  should  never  have  been  forced  to  ex 
plain.  Nevertheless,  one  cannot  wholly  acquit 
him  of  blame  in  his  transactions  with  his  Maine 
friends.  Whether  or  not  all  of  them  supposed 
that  in  offering  them  Little  Rock  securities  he 
was  disinterested,  —  that  he  gave  them  all  that 
the  company  allowed  him  for  the  amount  in 
vested,  —  is  not  and  cannot  be  known.  It  is 
certain  that  some  of  them  did  so  suppose,  and 
that  when  they  ascertained  the  facts,  friendly  re 
lations  with  him  were  disturbed  or  broken,  not 
withstanding  his  reparation,  making  good  their 
losses  at  great  expense  of  money,  anxiety,  and 
labor  on  his  own  part. 


THE   MULLIGAN   LETTERS  175 

Aside  from  his  natural  unwillingness  to  have 
his  private  affairs  and  his  confidential  corre 
spondence  made  public  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  the  consciousness  that  his 
receipt  of  a  large  nominal  commission  for  pla 
cing  the  bonds  was  not  capable  of  effective  de 
fence  seems  to  have  emphasized  that  unwilling 
ness,  and  to  have  caused  him  to  put  forth  all  his 
efforts  to  prevent  publicity.  No  serious  criticism 
can  be  made  upon  his  action  in  repossessing 
himself  of  the  letters  which  Mulligan  had,  with 
out  any  right  to  them.  But  in  his  explanations 
prior  to  the  time  when  the  whole  story  had  to  be 
told  he  withheld  a  part  of  the  truth.  Two  views 
may  be  and  have  been  taken  of  his  course  in 
this  respect.  The  harsh  view  is  that  he  was 
guilty  of  a  succession  of  falsehoods.  In  the 
pamphlets  rained  against  him  in  1884  these 
alleged  falsehoods  were  catalogued  and  num 
bered;  his  partial  and  in  some  respects  mis 
leading  statements  were  ranged  in  parallel 
columns  with  the  facts  afterward  brought  to 
light.  The  other  view,  charitable,  reasonable, 
and  easily  admitted  by  any  one  who  is  as  much 
disposed  to  think  well  as  to  think  evil,  is  that 
since  his  Little  Rock  affairs  were  in  no  way  re 
lated  to  the  charge  against  him  that  was  under 
investigation,  and  since  his  personal  pride  and 
his  personal  friendships  might  suffer  if  a  full 


176  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

revelation  were  made,  he  determined  to  tell  only 
so  much  as  could  have  any  possible  bearing  on 
the  pending  investigation. 

No  matter  which  of  these  views  be  taken,  there 
will  be  none  to  dispute  the  fact  that  both  the 
immediate  and  the  remote  consequences  of  his 
connection  with  the  Little  Rock  enterprise  were 
terribly  out  of  proportion  to  any  benefit  he  might 
have  derived  from  it,  had  it  been  successful. 
But,  at  the  worst,  nothing  in  the  history  of  the 
affair  justifies  the  malignity  with  which  he  was 
pursued  to  the  end  of  his  career. 


VII 

THE  CHECK  IN  1876  — SENATOR 

THE  presidential  canvass  of  1876  will  always  be 
deemed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  sensa 
tional  passages  in  the  political  life  of  the  coun 
try.  The  extraordinary  closeness  of  the  result, 
the  unprecedented  method  adopted  to  ascertain 
what  the  result  really  was,  and  the  unexpected 
issue  of  the  reference  of  the  dispute  to  the  Elect 
oral  Commission,  have  a  tendency  to  draw  at 
tention  away  from  the  early  incidents  of  the  can 
vass,  which  are  nevertheless  unusually  worthy 
of  study  by  all  who  are  interested  in  American 
politics. 

The  prospective  retirement  of  General  Grant 
brought  into  the  field  a  large  number  of  candi 
dates  for  the  Republican  nomination.  Each  of 
the  three  states  which  led  the  others  in  respect 
of  population  presented  a  "favorite  son."  New 
York  was  for  Senator  Conkling,  Pennsylvania 
for  Governor  Hartranft,  and  Ohio  for  Governor 
Hayes.  Indiana,  also,  supported  Senator  Mor 
ton,  and  Connecticut  brought  forward  Governor 
Jewell.  These  five  candidates  had,  from  purely 
local  support,  214  votes,  —  more  than  one  fourth 


178  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  the  full  national  convention,  consisting  of  756 
members,  But  most  of  them  had  also  adherents 
from  other  states  than  their  own.  Mr.  Morton, 
for  example,  had  nearly  half  the  delegates  from 
the  "reconstructed"  states. 

Beside  the  candidates  already  mentioned, 
there  were  two,  also  "  favorite  sons  "  to  be  sure, 
whose  candidacy  represented  something  broader 
and  upon  a  distinctly  higher  plane  than  local 
pride  and  skill  in  gathering  in  delegates  from 
states  under  negro  and  "  carpet-bag  "  rule :  Ben 
jamin  H.  Bristow  of  Kentucky,  and  James  G. 
Blaine  of  Maine. 

The  movement  in  favor  of  General  Bristow 
was  noble  in  purpose  and  was  supported  by  a 
body  of  earnest,  patriotic  men.  Bristow's  course 
as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  gave  them  good 
reason  to  believe  not  only  that  he  would  tolerate 
no  corruption  or  wrong-doing  on  the  part  of 
public  officers,  but  ^also  that  he  would  find  out 
offences  before  they  became  scandals,  and  secure 
the  punishment  of  the  offenders.  Too  little  de 
tection,  or  initiative  of  any  sort  in  the  prosecu 
tion  of  corrupt  officials  and  their  hangers-on, 
could  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  General  Grant's 
administration.  No  one  doubted  either  the 
President's  own  integrity  or  his  abhorrence  of 
the  evils  that  were  brought  to  light.  But  those 
evils  became  known  accidentally,  or  through 


THE   CHECK  IN   1876  179 

the  agency  of  private  persons ;  and  General 
Grant  would  not  dismiss  an  officer  "under 
fire."  The  Bristow  candidacy  was  to  a  certain 
extent  a  remnant  of  the  "  Liberal  Republican " 
movement  of  1872.  It  was  supported  eagerly 
by  those  Republicans  who  were  already  strongly 
opposed  to  Blaine  as  offering  the  best  chance 
of  defeating  him.  By  no  means  all  of  those  who 
advocated  the  nomination  of  General  Bristow 
were  of  this  class,  but  the  movement  was  es 
sentially  anti-Blaine.  The  selection  either  of 
Morton  or  of  Conkling  would  have  been  ex 
ceedingly  distasteful  to  them,  but  they  did  not 
greatly  fear  that  either  could  be  successful. 

Blaine  was  the  leading  candidate.  It  will 
doubtless  be  difficult  if  not  impossible  for  those 
who  know  what  an  adroit  and  resourceful  polit 
ical  manager  he  was,  whether  one  be  a  partisan 
or  an  opponent  of  the  man,  to  believe  that  the 
canvass  in  his  favor  was  in  no  sense  or  degree 
guided  or  promoted  by  him.  Yet  it  is  the  simple 
truth.  Mr.  Blaine  declared  to  the  present  writer 
in  December,  1875,  that  he  "  had  not  the  presiden 
tial  bee  in  his  bonnet,"  and  his  course  during  the 
ensuing  six  months  proves  that  the  statement 
was  sincere  and  truthful.  An  illustration  of  his 
—  we  cannot,  perhaps,  say  —  indifference,  but  at 
least  his  unwillingness  to  exert  himself  to  secure 
the  nomination,  is  given  on  the  authority  of  Mr. 


180  JAMES  G:  ELAINE 

Sherman,  his  confidential  secretary.  During 
that  period  hundreds  of  letters  were  received  by 
Blaine  from  persons  in  every  part  of  the  coun 
try,  pledging  support,  offering  service,  and  ask 
ing  for  advice  as  to  the  best  means  of  accom 
plishing  the  nomination.  Many,  perhaps  most, 
of  these  letters  were  from  men  who  were  leaders 
of  the  party  in  the  state,  county,  or  city  from 
which  they  were  written.  Mr.  Blaine  did  not 
answer  one  of  the  letters.  They  accumulated 
upon  his  desk  in  great  piles.  Mr.  Sherman  ex 
postulated  with  Mr.  Blaine  on  the  subject  and 
urged  that  courtesy  to  the  writers  as  well  as  good 
policy  suggested  that  he  should  devote  time  to 
the  disposal  of  this  important  correspondence. 
The  appeal  was  unsuccessful;  but  at  last  Sher 
man  obtained  permission  to  employ  assistance 
and  answer  the  letters  himself.  Accordingly  he 
classified  them  according  to  the  reply  to  be 
made,  prepared  blank  forms,  and  he  and  his 
assistants  cleared  the  desk.  The  most  important 
letters  only  were  reserved  for  Elaine's  personal 
signature. 

No  doubt  many  of  the  supporters  who  went  to 
Washington  to  see  him  and  obtain  verbal  ad 
vice  were  successful  in  their  mission.  But  Mr. 
Blaine  was  inaccessible  to  all  but  a  very  few 
callers,  he  invited  no  political  managers  to  visit 
him,  he  had  not  even  one  lieutenant  in  all  the 


THE   CHECK  IN   1876  181 

country,  chosen  by  himself  and  reporting  to  him, 
to  secure  convention  delegates  in  one  or  more 
states.  Indeed,  it  was  not  until  the  Saturday 
before  the  meeting  of  the  national  convention, 
so  Sherman  reports,  that  upon  being  assured 
by  despatches  from  Senators  Hale  and  Frye  of 
Maine,  that  his  nomination  seemed  sure,  he  be 
came  noticeably  interested  in  the  contest.1 

It  might  be  urged  that  during  the  two  or  three 
months  prior  to  the  Cincinnati  convention  Mr. 
Blaine  was  too  fully  occupied  in  repelling  the 
assaults  made  upon  his  character  to  leave  much 
time  for  personal  attention  to  his  canvass.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  equally  reasonable  to  argue 
that  such  attacks  would  naturally  cause  him  to 
put  forth  every  energy  he  possessed  to  counter 
act  their  effect  by  a  watchful  effort  to  control 
the  party  primaries  and  the  district  and  state 
conventions.  The  fact  that  he  had  taken  no  part 
in  the  canvass  before  he  was  forced  to  defend 
himself  is  conclusive.  His  abstention  was  not 
due  to  preoccupation  with  the  Union  Pacific : — 
Little  Rock  affair,  but  was  a  policy  which  he 
would  have  followed  in  any  event. 

1  His  light  and  half  incredulous  way  of  looking  at  his  own 
prospects  is  illustrated  by  an  incident  of  the  time.  One  day 
he  waved  a  telegram  just  received,  laughingly,  with  the 
remark,  "  Oregon  has  elected  delegates  for  me,  and  as  Maine 
also  is  for  me,  it  only  remains  for  my  friends  to  fill  up  the 
little  gap  between  them." 


182  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Yet  he  was  under  great  mental  strain.  His 
reputation  was  of  far  more  importance  to  him 
than  the  presidency.  He  was  in  the  hands  of  his 
enemies.  The  Democratic  majority  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  treated  his  denials 
and  explanations  as  unsatisfactory,  misleading, 
or  false;  and  on  his  final  appearance  in  that 
body  the  Speaker  pro  tempore,  Mr.  Cox  of  New 
York,  supported  by  all  the  members  on  the 
Democratic  side,  had  taken  a  course  which  he 
deemed  a  denial  of  justice,  beside  being  disre 
spectful  and  discourteous.  True,  practically  all 
of  Mr.  Elaine's  party  friends  on  the  floor  stood 
by  him;  and  most  of  the  leading  Republican 
newspapers  throughout  the  country  maintained 
that  he  had  fully  exonerated  himself.  But  there 
were  exceptions,  and  they  were  influential  ex 
ceptions.  The  tone  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  and 
of  both  the  great  Republican  dailies  of  Cincin 
nati,  where  the  convention  was  to  be  held,  was 
distinctly  hostile.  Their  reception  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
answer  to  the  charges  made  against  him  was  as 
cool  and  suspicious  as  was  that  of  the  Democratic 
press.  It  even  suggested  a  doubt  whether  these 
important  journals  would  support  the  nomina 
tion,  should  it  be  made,  and  it  certainly  caused 
many  delegates  who  did  not  themselves  question 
Mr.  Elaine's  integrity  to  withhold  their  votes 
from  him,  lest  the  absolute  union  of  the  party, 


THE   CHECK   IN   1876  183 

which  all  knew  to  be  essential,  should  be  put 
in  peril.1 

On  Sunday  morning,  June  11,  three  days  be 
fore  the  meeting  of  the  Cincinnati  convention, 
Mr.  Blaine  and  his  family  made  ready  to  go  to 
church,  as  was  their  custom.  As  it  was  an  op 
pressively  warm  day  Mrs.  Blaine  suggested  that 
they  should  go  in  a  carriage,  but  Mr.  Blaine  de 
clared  that  he  felt  unusually  well  that  morning 
and  preferred  to  walk.  The  party  had  just 
reached  the  steps  of  the  church  when  Mr.  Blaine 
was  suddenly  prostrated,  and  sank  into  the 
arms  of  his  wife.  He  murmured  something 
about  a  pain  in  his  head,  and  then  became  un 
conscious.  Help  was  summoned  quickly,  and 
he  was  taken  to  his  home,  which  was  soon  sur 
rounded  by  friends  anxious  for  him,  and  able  to 
express  their  sympathy  only  by  their  mute  pre 
sence.  Many  men  prominent  in  public  life  called 
to  obtain  intelligence.  Physicians  thronged  to 
the  house  to  offer  their  services.  It  was  late  in 
the  afternoon  before  he  showed  the  least  sign  of 
consciousness,  but  from  that  time  his  recovery 

1  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  two  of  the  editors  who  were 
largely  responsible  for  Mr.  Elaine's  defeat  at  Cincinnati, 
Mr.  Joseph  Medill  and  Mr.  Murat  Halstead,  afterward 
became  most  ardent  partisans;  and  it  is  perhaps  the  most 
conspicuous  example  of  Mr.  Elaine's  lifelong  willingness  to 
be  friends  with  those  who  had  been  his  enemies,  that  terms 
of  close  intimacy  and  friendship  were  established  with  them. 


184  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

was  rapid.  He  was  able  to  take  a  drive  on  Tues 
day,  and  although  he  had  recovered  little  of  his 
strength,  he  was  able  to  follow  with  interest  the 
proceedings  of  the  convention  as  they  were 
telegraphed  by  his  friends  direct  from  the  con 
vention  hall  to  his  house.  The  attack  seems 
not  to  have  been  technically  a  sunstroke,  but 
was  undoubtedly  the  combined  effect  of  the 
great  mental  strain  and  the  intense  heat.  It 
was  some  time  before  he  was  again  physically 
well,  but  mentally  his  restoration  was  complete 
on  the  day  after  his  seizure. 

It  was  a  new  argument  against  his  nomina 
tion.  Many  a  man  would  hesitate  to  choose  as  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency  one  who  had  been 
prostrated  by  an  attack  which  might  have  per 
manent  consequences,  affecting  his  power  to  dis 
charge  intelligently  the  duties  of  the  office.  As 
much  as  possible  was  made  of  this  point,  and 
incredulity  as  to  the  recovery  of  Mr.  Blaine  was 
encouraged.  No  doubt  it  was  one  of  several 
causes  of  his  defeat. 

Yet  not  only  was  Mr.  Blaine  the  leading  can 
didate  in  six  of  the  seven  votes  necessary  to 
effect  a  nomination,  but  he  had  at  the  beginning 
more  supporters  than  any  other  two  candidates, 
and  on  the  sixth  vote  he  had  as  many  delegates 
in  his  favor,  lacking  one,  as  the  next  three  can 
didates.  On  the  final  vote  Governor  Hayes  had 


THE   CHECK  IN   1876  185 

only  thirty-three  more  than  Mr.  Elaine,  and  but 
five  more  than  were  necessary  for  a  choice. 
Moreover  Mr.  Elaine's  support  was  by  far  the 
most  general,  geographically  considered,  for  on 
the  first  vote  he  received  support  from  thirty-five 
states  and  territories  of  the  forty-seven  repre 
sented,  and  on  the  second  vote  from  thirty-nine. 
This  fact  is  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is  con 
sidered  that  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  In 
diana,  Kentucky,  and  Connecticut  were  "solid" 
for  their  own  candidates,  and  that  Mr.  Elaine 
had  extremely  weak  support  from  all  the  New 
England  states  except  Maine. 

When  the  sixth  vote  was  in  progress,  Mr. 
Elaine,  seated  near  the  telegraph  instrument 
in  his  own  house,  expressed  the  opinion  that 
Governor  Hayes  would  be  nominated.  His  own 
vote  was  increasing;  he  received  twelve  more 
than  on  any  previous  trial,  and  Mr.  Hayes's 
increase  was  only  nine.  But  he  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  Hayes  was  the  only  one  of  all 
the  candidates  who  had  increased  his  vote  at 
each  successive  trial.  When  the  returns  began 
to  come  from  the  states,  called  in  alphabetical 
order,  on  the  seventh  and  final  vote,  his  opinion 
was  confirmed.  Upon  the  announcement  that 
New  York  transferred  its  support  from  Mr. 
Conkling  to  Mr.  Hayes,  he  remarked,  "That 
settles  it,"  and  began  to  write  a  despatch  con- 


186  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

gratulating  the  successful  candidate  upon  his 
nomination.  "It  will  be  alike  my  highest  plea 
sure,"  he  wrote,  "as  well  as  my  first  political 
duty  to  do  the  utmost  in  my  power  to  promote 
your  election.  The  earliest  moments  of  my  re 
turning  and  confirmed  health  will  be  devoted  to 
securing  you  as  large  a  vote  in  Maine  as  she 
would  have  given  for  myself."  The  pledge  was 
kept;  and  although  the  undertaking  could  not 
be  fully  carried  out,  Maine  did  give  a  comfort 
able  majority  of  nearly  seventeen  thousand  to 
the  Republican  ticket.  Nor  did  Mr.  Elaine  con 
fine  his  efforts  in  behalf  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler 
to  his  own  state.  He  was  at  the  service  of  the 
national  committee,  and  made  a  long  and  ardu 
ous  campaign  in  many  states,  east  and  west. 
Wherever  he  went  he  was  greeted  by  large  and 
enthusiastic  crowds,  and  received  most  gratify 
ing  manifestations  of  the  admiration  and  devo 
tion  of  his  Republican  friends. 

In  his  earnest  and  zealous  campaigning  in 
behalf  of  Governor  Hayes,  Mr.  Blaine  exhibited 
one  of  the  finest  traits  of  his  character  as  a  public 
man,  —  a  negative  trait,  to  be  sure,  —  the  com 
plete  absence  of  anything  like  sulkiness  in  defeat, 
or  spitefulness  toward  those  who  had  compassed 
his  defeat.  His  conduct  under  disappointment 
is  no  doubt  partly  to  be  explained  by  a  certain 
personal  self-respect  which  forbade  him  to  ex- 


THE    CHECK   IN    1876  187 

hibit  to  the  world  the  wounds  he  had  received. 
On  one  occasion  when  he  had  received  a  serious  re 
buff  he  said  to  his  secretary,  who  expressed  sur 
prise  at  his  apparent  indifference,  "Why  should 
I  show  people  my  sore  toes  ?  "  ./ 

But  there  is  the  best  authority  for  saying  that 
Mr.  Blaine  was  really  not  seriously  disappointed 
at  being  rejected  by  the  Cincinnati  convention, 
and  not  nearly  so  sorry  over  the  result  as  were 
most  of  his  friends.  If  his  own  assertions  on  this 
point  are  dismissed  as  insincere,  his  conduct  and 
bearing,  in  public  and  in  private,  among  those  so 
near  him  constantly  that  they  could  not  be  de 
ceived,  affirm  it  in  the  most  positive  manner.  It  is 
scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  he  enjoyed  his  cam 
paigning  at  home  and  in  other  states  during  the 
autumn  of  1876  quite  as  much  as  if  it  had  been 
undertaken  to  promote  his  own  election. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  close  of  the  Cin 
cinnati  convention  General  Bristow  retired  from 
the  cabinet.  Senator  Lot  M.  Morrill,  of  Maine, 
was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office  on  the  6th 
of  July.  Governor  Connor  appointed  Mr.  Blaine 
to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Senate,  and  his  creden 
tials  were  presented  on  the  12th.  But  his  health 
did  not  permit  him  then  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  and  he  went  to  Maine  for  his  conva 
lescence.  The  appointment  met  the  almost  uni- 


188  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

versal  approval  of  the  people  of  Maine.  His 
persistent  opponents,  in  the  hope  of  defeating  the 
ratification  of  Governor  Connor's  selection  by 
the  legislature,  flooded  the  members  of  that  body 
with  the  literature  of  the  Little  Rock  affair.  Yet 
Mr.  Blaine  was  so  popular  at  home,  and  enjoyed 
to  such  a  degree  the  confidence  of  those  who  knew 
him,  that  when  the  election  took  place  he  received 
the  votes,  not  only  of  all  the  Republican  members 
of  the  legislature,  but  of  all  the  Democrats  also. 
He  was  chosen  unanimously,  both  to  fill  the  va 
cancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Morrill, 
and  for  the  full  term  of  six  years  from  the  4th  of 
March,  1877. 

He  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  under  the  gov 
ernor's  appointment,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next 
session,  December,  1876.  He  engaged  but  little 
in  the  debates  at  that  session,  and  only  once  went 
much  beyond  the  point  of  incidental  remarks. 
Although  intensely  interested  in  the  controversy 
over  the  count  of  the  electoral  votes  and  the 
determination  of  the  result,  he  confined  himself 
for  the  most  part  to  a  private  expression  of  his 
views.  During  the  protracted  session  of  the  Sen 
ate  at  the  close  of  which  that  body  passed  the 
Electoral  Commission  bill,  he  spoke  for  about 
five  minutes  in  earnest  opposition  to  the  measure. 
His  point  was  that  such  a  commission  as  was 
proposed  was  extra-constitutional.  He  did  not 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  189 

believe  that  Congress  had  the  power  which  it  was 
proposed  to  confer  on  fifteen  men,  and  still  less 
the  power  to  transfer  it  to  the  commission. 

Notwithstanding  all  that  was  said  at  that  criti 
cal  juncture,  probably  no  person  whose  opinion 
carries  weight  would  now  dissent  from  Mr. 
Elaine's  contention  on  the  constitutional  ques 
tion.  Yet  in  all  probability,  were  a  similar 
crisis  to  arise,  there  would  be  little  opposition 
to  that  or  some  equally  unauthorized  device  for 
solving  an  otherwise  insoluble  problem.  The 
alternative  was,  and  again  would  be,  anarchy. 
Congress  had,  first  in  1864,  and  afterward  at  the 
two  intervening  elections,  counted  the  electoral 
votes  under  the  operation  of  a  joint  rule  which 
involved  the  exclusion  of  any  electoral  votes  to 
which  either  House  objected.  The  object  was  not 
to  pass  upon  the  validity  of  contesting  electoral 
colleges  in  any  state,  but  to  prevent  the  counting 
of  votes  from  any  state  that  had  passed  an  ordi 
nance  of  secession  and  had  not  been  restored  to 
all  its  rights  under  the  Constitution.  Under  this 
rule,  should  the  House  reject  the  vote  of  any  one 
of  the  states  in  dispute,  —  Louisiana,  South  Caro 
lina,  and  Florida,  —  Mr.  Tilden  would  be  elected. 
The  Republicans  asserted,  and  in  this  they  were 
certainly  correct,  that  a  joint  rule  expires  with  the 
Congress  which  adopts  it,  and  is  of  no  force  unless 
renewed.  They  also  maintained  that,  in  the  ab- 


190  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

sence  of  any  rule  governing  the  count  of  electoral 
votes,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
Senate  to  count  those  votes  and  to  declare  the 
result. 

In  such  a  situation,  with  a  Republican  Senate 
and  a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives,  it  is 
easy  to  see,  not  merely  that  there  was  danger  of  a 
most  regrettable  conflict,  but  that,  unless  some 
plan  were  agreed  to  by  both  parties  and  both 
Houses,  each  House  and  each  party  would  declare 
its  own  candidate  elected.  Inasmuch  as  no  one 
then,  or  since  that  time,  has  suggested  a  less  ob 
jectionable  measure  than  the  Electoral  Commis 
sion,  and  inasmuch  as  without  some  measure  of 
the  sort  the  country  would  have  been  in  danger  of 
civil  war,  we  may  concede  that  Mr.  Elaine's 
point  was  well  taken,  and  yet  hold  that  it  was  a 
wise  and  patriotic  act  to  pass  the  bill  to  which  he 
objected.  Moreover,  it  may  be  urged  with  force 
that,  if  it  is  unconstitutional  to  provide  that  an 
electoral  vote  shall  not  be  rejected  without  the 
concurrence  of  both  Houses  of  Congress — it  must 
surely  also  be  unconstitutional  to  allow  one  of  the 
two  Houses  to  secure  the  rejection  of  a  vote. 

The  decisions  of  the  Electoral  Commission, 
which  could  not  be  reversed,  because  the  Senate 
would  not  reverse  them,  resulted  in  the  declara 
tion  that  Mr.  Hayes  was  elected.  He  was  in 
stalled  in  the  office  of  President,  and  immediately 


THE    CHECK   IN    1876  191 

changed  the  policy  maintained  by  General 
Grant.  The  few  state  governments  under  Re 
publican  control,  which  had  been  upheld  by  the 
general  government  against  the  attempts  of  the 
white  people  to  overthrow  them,  were  abandoned 
to  their  fate.  Although  Mr.  Elaine  was  never  in 
favor  of  "bayonet  rule,"  the  desertion  by  the 
President  oTthe  cause  of  the  very  governments 
whose  validity  was  essential  to  his  own  claim  to 
the  office  he  occupied,  seemed  to  Mr.  Elaine  a 
surrender  of  the  only  tenable  argument  the  Presi 
dent  possessed  and  a  betrayal  of  his  friends.  The 
fact  that  in  making  up  his  cabinet  Mr.  Hayes 
not  only  did  not  invite  Mr.  Elaine  to  become  a 
member  of  it,  but,  in  offering  a  place  to  one  of 
Mr.  Elaine's  leading  supporters,  disregarded  his 
wishes  in  the  selection,  and  that  he  made  choice 
for  another  department  of  a  persistent  and  life 
long  enemy  of  the  senator,  gave  opportunity  to 
the  ever-vigilant  critics  to  ascribe  his  objection  to 
the  new  Southern  policy  to  personal  disappoint 
ment.1  But  Mr.  Elaine,  even  if  he  had  been 

1  He  was  asked  soon  after  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Hayes's 
administration  how  he  liked  the  new  cabinet.  He  replied  by 
telling  a  story  of  a  party  of  young  fellows  who  went  on  a 
camping  tour.  They  chose  one  of  their  number  as  cook,  and 
he  consented  to  accept  the  position  on  condition  that  the  first 
person  who  complained  of  the  food  should  take  his  place. 
The  first  man  who  set  his  teeth  into  a  biscuit  the  next  morn 
ing  exclaimed,  "Whew  !  how  salt  this  bread  is!"  And  then 
he  added  quickly,  "  but  I  like  biscuit  a  little  salty." 


192  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

asked  to  become  one  of  President  Hayes's  ad 
visers,  would  never  have  consented  to  a  course 
which  would  have  been  inconsistent  with  all  that 
he  had  said  in  the  House  and  on  the  stump,  since 
the  political  overturn  of  1874  had  shown  what 
the  Southern  white  men  intended  to  do,  and  what 
they  had  already  nearly  accomplished. 

Indeed,  Mr.  Elaine  had  indicated  his  own 
opinion,  and  had  taken  a  course  different  from 
that  which  the  President  was  about  to  adopt,  be 
fore  the  new  policy  was  even  foreshadowed.  The 
Senate  met  in  special  session  on  the  day  of  the 
inauguration.  It  was  closely  divided  politically, 
and  there  were  several  persons  claiming  seats 
from  Southern  states  to  whose  admission  there 
were  objections.  Most  of  them  were  Democrats, 
but  the  Democrats  themselves  objected  to  the 
admission  of  Governor  Kellogg,  of  Louisiana, 
whose  claim  rested  upon  the  authority  of  the 
famous  "  returning  board  "  of  that  state.  It  is  a 
tradition  of  the  Senate  that  a  new  member  shall 
keep  himself  modestly  in  the  background.  The 
older  senators  are  disposed  to  resent  as  an  act 
of  presumption  even  a  slight  and  occasional  par 
ticipation  in  the  debates  by  a  novice.  No  doubt 
Mr.  Blaine  was  fully  aware  of  this  custom  of  the 
Senate,  yet  on  the  second  day  of  the  session  he 
offered  a  resolution  that  Mr.  Kellogg  be  sworn 
in  as  a  senator.  One  or  two  only  of  the  Republi- 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  193 

cans  came  to  his  support,  and  he  was  forced  to 
sustain  his  side  of  the  question  almost  alone.  The 
Democrats  opposed  him,  and  proposed  that  the 
case  be  postponed  until  the  committees  should 
be  appointed  and  the  matter  examined.  Queerly 
enough  they  were  allowed  to  have  their  way.  Six 
of  the  Republicans  voted  with  them,  —  two  or 
three  new  senators  among  them,  who  explained 
their  votes  by  saying  frankly  that  they  did  not 
understand  the  Louisiana  question.  Mr.  Conk- 
ling  was  one  of  the  six,  and  he  did  not  explain 
his  vote.  He  certainly  needed  no  additional  light 
on  the  controversy.  The  proposition  to  admit 
Mr.  Kellogg  was  defeated,  29  to  35,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  regular  session  that  he  was  allowed 
to  take  his  seat. 

Mr.  Blaine  showed  no  hesitation  in  taking 
ground  in  opposition  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
enfranchised,  and  now  to  be  disfranchised,  freed- 
men.  When  a  despatch  was  received  from  Gov 
ernor  Chamberlain,  of  South  Carolina,  giving 
information  that  he  was  advised  —  apparently  by 
the  chief  member  of  the  Cabinet,  Mr.  Evarts,  — 
that  he  ought  to  yield,  for  the  good  of  the  coun 
try,  Mr.  Blaine  read  the  despatch  to  the  Senate, 
and  exclaimed :  — 

"Is  there  a  senator  on  this  floor  who  desires 
to  stand  sponsor  for  that  despatch,  or  for  the 
policy  that  it  covers  ?  Is  there  a  senator  here  who 


194  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

proposes  to  abandon  the  remnant  that  is  left  of 
the  Republican  party  between  the  Potomac  and 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  that  it  shall  go  down  for  the 
public  good  ?  .  .  .  I  propose  for  myself,  so  long 
as  I  shall  be  entrusted  with  a  seat  on  this  floor, 
that,  whoever  else  shall  halt  or  grow  weak  in 
maintaining  it,  so  long  as  I  have  the  strength  I 
will  stand  for  southern  Union  men  of  both  colors ; 
and  when  I  cease  to  do  that  before  any  presence, 
North  or  South,  in  official  bodies  or  before  public 
assemblies,  may  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of 
my  mouth  and  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning." 

It  is  too  early,  even  yet,  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  those  words 
were  spoken,  to  pronounce  Mr.  Hayes's  policy 
right  and  Mr.  Elaine's  judgment  wrong.  In  view 
of  questions  regarding  suffrage  in  the  Southern 
States  which  are  still  undecided,  or  have  been 
decided  arbitrarily,  it  may  be  that,  even  if  Re 
publican  reconstruction  must  be  regarded  as 
unduly  harsh  in  its  operation,  the  Republican 
surrender  was  premature. 

During  the  session  of  1877-78  Mr.  Elaine  made 
a  speech  in  the  Senate  which  was  one  of  the  few 
utterances  from  his  lips  that  may  justly  be  criti 
cized  as  showing  a  lack  of  tact  and  even  of  good 
taste.  Maine  sent  to  the  national  statuary  gal 
lery  a  statue  of  William  King,  the  first  governor 
of  the  State.  The  exercises  of  presentation  took 


THE    CHECK   IN    1876  195 

place  in  the  Senate  on  January  22,  1878.  Sena 
tor  Hannibal  Hamlin  was  the  first  speaker,  and 
was  followed  by  Mr.  Blaine,  who  took  occasion 
to  contrast  the  active  loyalty  of  the  people  of  the 
District  of  Maine  with  the  official  and  private 
aloofness  of  old  Massachusetts,  during  the  war 
of  1812,  and  to  represent  in  rather  a  strong  light 
the  difficulties  and  opposition  that  Maine  encoun 
tered  from  the  government  and  the  leading  men 
of  the  Commonwealth  in  obtaining  consent  to 
the  separation,  which  took  place  in  1820.  He 
had  given  notice  to  the  senators  from  Massachu 
setts  that  he  was  about  to  refer  to  these  matters, 
and  after  he  had  concluded,  Mr.  Dawes  and  Mr. 
Hoar,  although  not  calling  in  question  any  of  the 
specific  facts  alleged  by  Mr.  Blaine,  resented  his 
attack  upon  the  state  as  uncalled  for,  and  as  giv 
ing  an  incorrect  idea  both  of  the  general  attitude 
of  Massachusetts  toward  the  second  war  with 
Great  Britain,  and  of  its  course  in  the  matter  of 
the  erection  of  the  new  State  of  Maine.  The  dis 
cussion  became  quite  warm  and  somewhat  acri 
monious.  No  one  can  read  it  without  a  feeling 
that  whatever  Mr.  Blaine's  motive  was  in  intro 
ducing  the  subject,  his  speech  resulted  in  an  un 
pleasant  discordance  which  was  quite  out  of  place 
on  such  an  occasion.  It  gave  an  opportunity  to 
his  Republican  opponents,  who  were  rather  nu 
merous  in  Massachusetts,  to  insinuate  that  his 


196  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

purpose  was  to  pay  off  an  old  score  —  the  hostility 
to  him  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  delegates  from 
that  state  to  the  convention  of  1876.  Although 

o 

there  was  undoubtedly  nothing  in  this  charge, 
yet  it  is  .undeniable  that  his  assault  on  Massa 
chusetts  intensified  whatever  feeling  against  him 
already  existed,  and  that  his  speech  on  William 
King  was  not  forgotten  in  1884. 

The  great  event  of  that  session  was  the  passage 
of  the  act  restoring  the  silver  dollar  to  the  coinage, 
against  which  the  veto  of  President  Hayes  was 
unavailing.  Mr.  Blaine  indicated  his  position  on 
the  question  briefly  in  the  debate  on  the  resolution 
of  Senator  Stanley  Matthews,  of  Ohio,  which  de 
clared  that  it  would  not  be  a  violation  of  the  pub 
lic  faith  to  pay  the  principal  and  interest  of  the 
public  debt  in  silver  dollars.  He  argued  the  mat 
ter  more  at  length  when  the  bill  admitting  silver  to 
free  coinage  on  the  same  terms  as  gold  came  from 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  before  the 
Senate  in  the  form  of  a  substitute  providing  for 
coinage  of  silver  dollars  on  government  account. 

Mr.  Blaine  occupied  ground  between  the  two 
extremes.  Like  a  great  many  advocates  of  the 
most  scrupulous  good  faith  toward  public  credit 
ors,  he  was  a  firm  believer  in  bimetallism  —  a 
word  not  then  invented.  Moreover,  he  held  that 
it  was  unconstitutional  to  demonetize  gold  or  sil 
ver,  either  or  both,  and  quoted  a  remark  by  Daniel 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  197 

Webster  to  sustain  his  point  on  the  constitutional 
question.  But  he  was  inflexible  in  holding  that  the 
bullion  value  of  the  silver  dollar  must  be  equal  to 
that  of  the  gold  dollar,  and  that  a  r&nonetization 
of  silver  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  1,  —  412J  grains  of 
standard  silver  to  the  dollar,  —  when  that  amount 
of  silver  was  worth  only  ninety-two  cents  in  the 
market,  would  be  a  fraud  upon  all  creditors.  He 
expected  that  a  remonetization  of  silver  by  the 
United  States  would  be  followed  by  similar  action 
on  the  part  of  Germany  and  the  countries  of  the 
Latin  Union.  His  own  proposition  was  to  in 
crease  the  weight  of  the  silver  dollar  to  425  grains, 
believing  that  the  act  of  remonetization,  which 
would  lead  to  a  largely  increased  use  of  silver, 
would  also  cause  a  sufficient  rise  in  the  value  of 
the  metal  to  make  the  new  dollar  intrinsically 
worth  the  gold  dollar.  At  the  current  price  of  sil 
ver  bullion  his  proposed  dollar  would  be  worth  a 
little  less  than  ninety-five  cents. 

Every  student  of  the  literature  of  the  silver 
controversy,  which  lasted  almost  exactly  twenty 
years,  and  which  was  at  its  beginning  in  the  win 
ter  of  1877-78,  is  aware  of  the  almost  infinite 
variety  of  opinions  advanced.  The  gold  standard 
had  to  make  its  way  against  many  logical  and 
theoretical  obstacles.  Among  those  who  were 
earnestly  in  favor  of  "good  money"  as  distin 
guished  from  "  cheap  money,"  who  placed  abso- 


198  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

lute  justice  to  creditors  before  favor  to  debtors, 
who  were  opposed  to  inflation  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  about  good  times,  who  did  not  believe 
that  the  staftnp  of  the  government  mint  could 
create  value  or  increase  value,  —  among  this 
class  of  men  who  always  resisted  the  devices  for 
lowering  the  standard  of  value,  from  the  earliest 
greenback  to  the  latest  silver  scheme,  were  a  great 
many  strong  and  able  thinkers  who  were  more  or 
less  attracted  by  the  idea  of  bimetallism  and 
alarmed  by  the  fancied  dangers  of  monometal 
lism.  They  doubted,  as  did  Mr.  Blame,  the  con 
stitutional  power  of  Congress  to  establish  the 
standard  in  one  metal ;  or  they  feared,  as  he  did, 
that  a  general  adoption  of  the  gold  standard 
would  cause  a  scarcity  of  money  and  a  great  rise 
of  prices ;  or  they  believed  that  a  general  return 
to  the  dual  standard  by  the  countries  which  had 
abandoned  it  would  restore  silver  to  its  former 
price,  and  would  not  merely  make  the  American 
silver  dollar  coined  at  the  ratio  with  gold  of  six 
teen  to  one  actually  worth  the  gold  dollar,  but 
would  make  it  worth  so  much  more  that  the 
United  States  would  be  forced,  in  order  to  retain 
its  silver,  to  adopt  the  Latin  Union  ratio  of  fifteen 
to  one. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  cite  all  the  reasons  which 
led  many  advocates  of  "  honest  money,"  as  they 
called  themselves,  to  concede  one  point  after  an- 


THE   CHECK   IN    1876  199 

other  to  those  who  urged  the  immediate  and 
unconditional  free  coinage  of  the  silver  dollar. 
Those  who  erred  in  this  way  erred  in  good  com 
pany.  Bimetallism  had  great  and  able  champions, 
both  in  this  country  and  abroad,  among  men 
who  would  never  have  advocated  it  if  they  had 
believed  that  in  its  operation  it  would  impair  the 
value  of  property  or  do  injustice  to  creditors. 
Mr.  Blaine  was  on  this  point  as  firm  as  a  rock. 
He  was  entitled  to  his  belief  on  the  subject  of  the 
unconstitutionality  of  monometallism,  and  to  his 
faith  that  a  heavier  dollar  than  that  of  "the  fa 
thers"  would  become  worth  a  gold  dollar  and 
retain  that  value.  But  every  proposition  which 
savored  of  injury  to  creditors  and  impairment  of 
the  value  of  contracts  he  opposed  steadily  and 
consistently.  He  resisted,  for  example,  the  argu 
ment  that  because,  when  some  of  the  bonds  were 
issued,  silver  and  gold  were  by  law  equally  a 
standard  of  value,  therefore  it  was  equitable  for 
the  government  to  discharge  those  obligations  in 
silver.  He  said  that  the  phrase  "  nominated  in  the 
bond  "  is  "  not  an  honored  phrase  in  this  world's 
history." 

"  Let  the  public  creditor  come  face  to  face  with 
you,"  he  said  in  a  debate  in  the  Senate,  "  and  he 
can  say  to  you  'Silver  and  gold  were  equally 
meant  in  the  bond ; '  I  so  hold ;  but  he  can  say  to 
you  that  you,  representing  the  Congress  of  the 


200  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

United  States,  have  destroyed  the  value  of  silver 
in  the  markets  of  the  world.  It  was  your  demone 
tization  that  discredited  it.  It  was  your  act." 

Mr.  Howe,  of  Wisconsin,  interrupted:  "We 
put  it  back."  Mr.  Blaine  replied:  "Ah,  but  you 
cannot  put  back  the  same  thing.  You  have  done 
what  you  cannot  undo.  The  public  creditor  can 
come  face  to  face  with  you  and  say  that  when  you, 
with  your  power,  by  your  act,  discredited  silver, 
it  was  more  valuable  than  what  you  agreed  to 
give  him,  but  that  by  your  sovereign  power,  over 
which  he  had  no  control  whatever,  you  destroyed 
the  money  value  of  that  article;  and  after  you 
had  destroyed  it,  after  you  had  taken  out  its  pay 
ing  and  its  purchasing  power,  you  turn  around 
and  say,  '  We  will  restore  it  because  it  is  below 
what  it  was,  and  we  will  force  it  upon  you  be 
cause  it  is  nominated  in  the  bond.' " 

The  above  is  a  good  illustration  of  his  attitude  ; 
and  all  his  votes  on  the  numerous  amendments 
offered  to  the  silver  bill,  save  only  those  relating 
to  the  amount  of  silver  the  dollar  was  to  contain, 
were  in  accordance  therewith.  He  voted  against 
the  bill  on  its  final  passage,  and  again,  when  it 
was  returned  by  the  house  with  the  veto  of  the 
President,  he  was  recorded  in  the  negative. 

From  the  time  of  the  silver  debate  onward  Mr. 
Blaine  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  debates  in  the 
Senate.  Not  many  of  the  older  members  of  that 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  201 

body  were  on  their  feet  so  often  as  he,  to  express 
opinions,  to  ask  questions  of  the  senator  occupy 
ing  the  floor,  or  to  engage  in  the  thrust  and  parry 
of  debate.  Some  of  the  questions  of  the  day  inter 
ested  him  greatly,  and  he  entered  earnestly  into 
them.  The  now-forgotten  controversy  as  to  the 
appointment  of  the  third  arbitrator  on  the  subject 
of  the  fisheries,  under  the  Treaty  of  Washington, 
was  raised  by  him.  The  points  he  made  were 
never  refuted;  they  were  hardly  questioned. 
Great  Britain  was  to  appoint  one  arbitrator,  the 
United  States  one,  and  the  two  governments  were 
to  agree  on  a  third ;  upon  their  failure  to  do  so 
within  a  certain  time,  the  third  was  to  be  des 
ignated  by  the  Emperor  of  Austria-Hungary. 
There  were  objections  to  the  appointment  of  a 
Belgian,  which  were  first  suggested  and  officially 
admitted  by  Lord  Ripon,  based  on  the  close 
relations  between  Great  Britain  and  Belgium. 
Yet  when  the  State  Department  submitted  a 
list  of  acceptable  persons,  ministers  from  many 
European  and  American  countries  at  Washing 
ton,  they  were  all  rejected  on  the  ground  that 
Canada  objected  to  the  choice  of  any  minister 
accredited  to  this  country,  and  the  British  min 
ister  proposed  instead  the  name  of  the  Belgian 
minister  at  Washington.  The  British  govern 
ment  adhered  to  this  grossly,  almost  absurdly,  in 
consistent  nomination,  would  listen  to  no  other 


202  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

name,  and  dragged  out  the  consideration  of  the 
question  until  the  time  for  an  agreement  had 
expired.  The  Emperor  of  Austria-Hungary  there 
upon  appointed  the  one  gentleman  to  whom  the 
United  States  had  objected.  The  arbitration  re 
sulted  in  a  decision,  assented  to  by  the  British  and 
Belgian  members,  that  the  United  States  should 
pay  the  sum  of  five  and  a  half  million  dollars 
for  the  privileges  granted  under  the  Treaty  of 
Washington. 

It  was  held  then,  and  has  always  been  held 
by  every  one  who  enjoyed  those  privileges,  and 
practically  by  every  American,  that  the  advan 
tages  secured  to  Canada  —  the  chief  of  which 
was  the  free  admission  of  all  fresh  fish  into  the 
great  market  of  this  country  —  were  far  more 
valuable  than  the  rights  granted  to  Americans, 
to  buy  bait,  to  fish  within  the  three-mile  limit, 
and  to  land  and  cure  their  fish.  Mr.  Blaine  pre 
sented  the  case  very  strongly,  showed  how  com 
pletely  Great  Britain  had  overreached  this  coun 
try  by  practically  selecting  a  majority  of  the 
commission,  and  urged  that,  although  it  would  be 
on  every  account  good  policy  to  pay  the  amount 
awarded,  that  should  not  be  done  without  letting 
it  be  known  that  in  the  opinion  of  Congress  the 
arbitration  had  not  been  a  fair  one.  The  money 
was  paid,  and  Great  Britain  took  no  notice  of  the 
objection. 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  203 

This  was  Mr.  Elaine's  first  essay  in  interna 
tional  affairs.  But  in  the  same  session  —  that  of 
1877-78  —  at  which  he  took  the  lead  "in  this 
matter,  he  began  his  service  in  the  direction  of 
enlarging  the  trade  of  the  country  with  Spanish- 
America,  in  which  region  afterward,  as  Secretary 
of  State,  he  developed  a  national  policy  that 
should  always  be  associated  with  his  name.  He 
urged  with  eloquence  and  great  ability  the  estab 
lishment  of  subsidized  lines  of  steamships  to 
South  America,  particularly  to  Brazil,  and  em 
phasized  the  folly  of  allowing  Great  Britain  and 
Germany  to  seize  and  hold  the  trade  of  that 
continent,  without  adopting  measures  to  secure 
commerce  that  might  be  had.  The  last  speech 
he  made  in  the  Senate,  on  January  27,  1881,  a 
few  weeks  before  entering  President  Garfield's 
cabinet,  was  on  a  subject  closely  allied  to  this. 
Senator  Beck,  of  Kentucky,  introduced  a  reso 
lution  declaring  that  all  laws  which  prevented 
Americans  from  purchasing  and  registering  under 
the  flag  of  the  United  States  ships  built  abroad, 
ought  to  be  repealed.  He  spoke  at  great  length 
in  favor  of  the  policy  of  "  free  ships." 

Mr.  Blaine  replied  at  once,  "  without  prepara 
tion,  and  with  no  data  except  such  as  I  recall  from 
memory."  It  was,  nevertheless,  an  able  speech, 
in  which  the  neglect  of  the  shipping  interest  by 
Congress  was  dwelt  upon  with  almost  as  much 


204  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

earnestness  as  was  the  discouragement  of  ship 
building  in  this  country  that  would  be  the  conse 
quence  of  Mr.  Beck's  policy.  He  called  attention 
in  a  striking  passage  to  the  fact  that  in  the  previ 
ous  twenty  years  Congress  had  given  two  hun 
dred  million  acres  of  land  and  seventy  million 
dollars  in  cash  in  aid  of  internal  transportation  by 
rail,  but  had  devoted  hardly  a  single  dollar  to 
building  up  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  country. 
He  cited  the  case  of  Brazil,  which  offered  an 
American  company  a  subsidy  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  to  maintain  a  steamship 
line  between  New  York  and  Rio  de  Janeiro,  on 
condition  that  the  United  States  would  grant  an 
equal  sum.  The  offer  was  not  accepted  by  Con 
gress,  the  line  was  about  to  be  discontinued,  and 
Americans  would  be  reduced  to  the  humiliation 
of  sending  their  letters  to  South  America  by  way 
of  Liverpool.  For  a  British  company  would  bring 
the  coffee  and  india  rubber  of  Brazil  to  New 
York,  would  carry  American  produce  to  England, 
and  would  complete  the  triangular  voyage  by 
transporting  British  manufactures  to  Brazil. 

He  urged  strongly  the  point  that  Mr.  Beck 
expressly  conceded  that  the  policy  of  free  ships  in 
volved  the  dependence  of  this  country  on  Great 
Britain  for  ships  for  an  indefinite  period,  and 
contrasted  the  policy  proposed  with  the  actual 
policy  of  Great  Britain  itself,  which  was  paying 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  205 

millions  of  dollars  annually  to  maintain  its  own 
steamship  lines,  in  the  form  of  payment  for  the 
carriage  of  the  mails.  He  also  referred  to  the 
absolute  dependence  of  a  country  which  has  a 
navy  upon  a  mercantile  marine.  The  navy  had 
been  starved,  and  would-be  merchants  were  de 
terred  from  engaging  in  ocean  commerce  by  the 
indifference  of  Congress.  Mr.  Beck's  policy 
would  take  away  the  last  hope  of  creating  at 
home  a  business  of  shipbuilding. 

A  careful  reading  of  Mr.  Elaine's  speeches  — 
this  and  others  —  on  topics  connected  with  busi 
ness,  particularly  with  the  foreign  trade,  is  neces 
sary  to  show  how  far  he  was  in  advance  of  his 
time,  how  fully  he  anticipated  conditions  and 
arguments,  and  how  definitely  he  set  forth  a 
policy  which  has  since  been  adopted  and  ex 
tended  by  the  party  to  which  he  was  all  his  life 
attached. 

The  government  was  practically  at  war  with 
itself  during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Hayes. 
The  House  of  Representatives  was  controlled  by 
the  Democrats  during  his  whole  term ;  and  from 
1879  to  1881  both  branches  of  Congress  were  in 
their  hands.  While  the  overthrow  of  Republican 
ism  and  the  suppression  of  the  negro  vote  were 
nearing  accomplishment  in  the  Southern  States, 
the  Democratic  party  in  Congress  was  bending 
all  its  energy  to  expunge  the  legislation  by  means 


206  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  which  a  stand  had  been  made  against  those 
political  schemes.  The  history  of  the  long  contest 
is  extremely  interesting,  but  is  so  familiar  in  its 
general  outlines  that  it  need  not  be  rehearsed. 
Congress  held  the  purse  strings.  For  the  purpose 
had  in  view,  either  House  held  the  purse  strings. 
The  President  might  veto  appropriation  bills 
bearing  "  riders "  that  repealed  laws  deemed  by 
the  South  obnoxious,  but  so  long  as  the  House  of 
Representatives  refused  to  vote  supplies  save  on 
condition  that  the  political  legislation  be  accepted 
with  the  grant  of  money  for  civil  and  military  pur 
poses,  that  body  dominated  the  situation.  It  was 
inevitable  that  in  the  end  the  executive  depart 
ment  should  yield  to  the  legislative,  or  the  govern 
ment  would  die  of  starvation. 

Mr.  Elaine  did  not  intervene  often  in  the  de 
bates  on  the  issues  raised  in  this  conflict,  but  his 
words  when  he  did  take  part  were  weighty  and  - 
to  the  members  of  his  own  party  at  least  —  con 
vincing.  His  most  important  speeches  on  the 
Southern  question  were  delivered,  the  one  on 
December  11,  1878,  at  the  third  and  concluding 
session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  the  other  on 
April  4,  1879,  at  the  first  session  of  the  Forty- 
sixth  Congress,  called  by  President  Hayes  in 
consequence  of  the  failure  of  appropriation  bills. 

On  the  first  of  these  occasions  Mr.  Elaine  spoke 
on  a  resolution  introduced  by  himself,  providing 


THE    CHECK   IN    1876  207 

for  an  investigation  of  the  denial  and  abridg 
ment  of  the  right  of  suffrage  "  in  any  of  the  States 
of  the  Union,"  but  really  of  the  means  by  which 
the  negro  vote  of  the  South  had  been  suppressed. 
He  brought  out  in  a  most  striking  way  the  fact 
that  the  Southern  white  men  enjoyed,  man  for 
man,  vastly  more  political  power  than  an  equal 
number  of  men  at  the  North.  For  example,  South 
Carolina,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  had  as 
many  representatives  in  Congress  as  Iowa  and 
Wisconsin ;  but  in  those  Southern  states  the  votes 
of  colored  men  were  not  allowed  to  be  cast,  or  if 
cast  not  allowed  to  be  counted,  and  thus  sixty 
thousand  men  in  those  states  exercised  as  great 
power  as  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand 
men  in  Wisconsin  and  Iowa.  The  speech  was  by 
no  means  confined  to  this  point,  but  the  numerical 
exposition  of  the  inequity  of  the  condition  which 
the  Southern  people  had  brought  about  was  the 
most  prominent  feature  of  it.  Mr.  Elaine's  resolu 
tion,  modified  with  his  consent,  was  adopted 
by  the  Senate,  and  the  investigation  and  report 
by  the  Teller  committee  were  the  result,  —  an  ar 
gumentative  result  only,  for  the  Republican  party 
has  never  ventured  unitedly  to  take  up  the  pro 
blem  of  the  over-representation  of  the  South. 

The  use  of  statistics  to  carry  conviction  to  the 
minds  of  his  hearers  was  one  of  Mr.  Elaine's  fa 
vorite  methods  in  argument.  On  the  occasion  of 


208  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

the  second  speech  mentioned  above  he  made  such 
use  with  great  effect.  The  Southern  Democrats 
and  their  Northern  allies  were  making  a  persistent 
effort  to  repeal  the  clause  in  an  act  of  Congress 
passed  in  1865,  which  by  implication  allowed  the 
presence  of  a  military  force  to  preserve  the  peace 
at  the  polls.  They  made  much  of  the  intimida 
tion  practised  by  the  army  and  urged  the  repeal 
in  the  name  of  liberty.  Mr.  Blaine,  in  the  course 
of  his  speech,  challenged  any  senator  to  specify 
the  time  and  place  of  such  intimidation,  or  of 
the  presence  of  soldiers  at  a  voting-place  while 
an  election  was  taking  place.  Only  one  such  case 
since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  could  be,  or  at  all 
events  was,  cited.  Mr.  Blaine  turned  the  whole 
affair  into  ridicule  by  showing  that  in  the  entire 
South  there  were  only  eleven  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  soldiers.  He  said  there  were  twelve  hundred 
and  three  counties  in  those  states,  and  therefore 
there  was  less  than  one  soldier  to  a  county  "  to 
intimidate,  overrun,  oppress,  and  destroy  the 
liberties  of  fifteen  million  people,  and  rob  them 
of  freedom  at  the  polls."  Also,  he  remarked,  there 
was  one  soldier  for  every  seven  hundred  square 
miles.  He  characterized  the  agitation  and  pre 
tended  alarm  over  military  intimidation  as  "a 
prodigious  and  absolute  farce,  a  miserably  manu 
factured  false  issue,  a  pretence  without  the  least 
foundation  in  the  world." 


THE    CHECK   IN    1876  209 

The  Southern  question  was  so  much  on  his 
mind,  and  his  sense  of  the  injustice  that  was  in 
danger  of  becoming  permanent,  because  it  was 
neither  checked  nor  rebuked,  was  so  strong,  that 
in  1880  he  contributed  the  remarkable  paper  to 
the  "  North  American  Review,"  March  issue,  on 
the  questions:  "Ought  the  negro  to  be  disfran 
chised  ?  Ought  he  to  have  been  enfranchised  ?  " 
to  which  brief  reference  has  already  been  made.1 

If  Mr.  Elaine's  views  are  obsolete  at  the  pre 
sent  day,  that  is  no  more  than  can  be  said  of  the 
views  of  all  the  other  contributors  to  the  sym 
posium.  Mr.  Blaine  held,  not  only  that  the  negro 
ought  not  to  be  disfranchised,  but  that  he  could 
not  be  legally  deprived  of  the  right  of  suffrage. 
One  vote  more  than  one  third  in  either  branch  of 
Congress  would  prevent  the  annulment  of  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments,  and  "if 
these  securities  and  safeguards  should  give  way, 
then  the  disfranchisement  could  not  be  effected 
so  long  as  a  majority  in  one  branch  in  the  legis 
latures  of  one  state  more  than  one  fourth  of  all 
the  states  should  refuse  to  assent  to  it,  and  re 
fuse  to  assent  to  a  convention  to  which  it  might 
be  referred.  No  human  right  on  this  continent 
is  more  completely  guaranteed  than  the  right 
against  disfranchisement  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude,  as  em- 


210  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

bodied  in  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States." 

He  was  equally  emphatic  in  answering  the 
second  question.  "If  the  question  were  again 
submitted  to  the  judgment  of  Congress  I  would 
vote  for  suffrage  in  the  light  of  experience  with 
more  confidence  than  I  voted  for  it  in  the  light  of 
an  experiment." 

On  both  these  points  public  opinion  at  the 
North  has  undergone  a  change.  Where  it  has  not 
gone  to  the  extent  of  regarding  the  enfranchise 
ment  of  the  negro  as  a  political  blunder,  and  of 
explicit  approval  of  the  steps  taken  in  most  of  the 
Southern  states  to  nullify  the  two  amendments, 
it  has  become  indifferent  and  tolerant.  Mr. 
Elaine's  argument  was  powerful  and  logically 
unanswerable,  but  he  counted  too  little  upon  the 
determination  of  the  Southern  white  men  to 
resume  the  absolute  political  power  which  they 
exercised  before  the  Civil  War,  too  much  upon 
the  restraining  power  of  the  letter  of  the  Consti 
tution,  unsupported  by  legislative  and  executive 
measures  to  enforce  it,  and  too  much  upon  a  con 
tinuing  public  sentiment  in  the  old  "  free  States  " 
in  favor  of  upholding  the  rights  of  those  whom  the 
issue  of  the  war  had  freed  from  bondage.  But  it 
is  a  singular  fact  that  Messrs.  Lamar,  Stephens, 
Hampton,  and  Hendricks  were  almost  as  em 
phatic  in  declaring  against  disfranchisement  as 


THE    CHECK    IN    1876  211 

was  Mr.  Elaine  himself.  If  the  first  three  of  these 
eminent  Democrats  represented  the  opinion  of 
the  white  men  in  their  respective  states  of  Missis 
sippi,  Georgia,  and  South  Carolina,  it  follows 
that  public  sentiment  in  the  South  as  well  as  at 
the  North  has  undergone  a  complete  change  dur 
ing  the  last  quarter-century. 

Mr.  Blaine  became  much  interested  in  the 
movement  against  Chinese  immigration.  In  Feb 
ruary,  1879,  he  delivered  two  speeches  on  the 
subject  in  the  Senate,  and  wrote  a  long  letter  to 
the  New  York  "  Tribune "  in  answer  to  objec 
tions  raised  to  his  position.  At  that  time  the 
agitation  against  the  coming  of  the  Chinese, 
which  had  originated  on  the  "sand  lots"  of 
San  Francisco,  was  greatly  deprecated  by  a 
large  number  of  men  who  regarded  it  as  con 
trary  to  the  spirit  of  American  institutions  and 
as  catering  to  a  base  prejudice.  The  position 
taken  by  Mr.  Blaine  seemed  to  them  a  yield 
ing  to  the  demands  of  a  class  of  men  who  put 
self  interest  and  race  hatred  above  the  gener 
ous  hospitality  which  the  country  had  always 
extended  to  all  the  peoples  of  the  world.  On  this 
question  also  opinion  has  changed  greatly  and 
has  come  around  to  Mr.  Elaine's  position.  His 
arguments,  prepared  in  1879,  would  be  accepted 
to-day  by  a  vast  majority  of  those  who  then  criti 
cized  and  rejected  them. 


212  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

After  Garfield's  tender  of  the  Secretaryship  of 
State  had  been  accepted  by  Mr.  Blaine,  he  ceased 
to  be  regular  in  his  attendance  at  the  sessions 
of  the  Senate,  and  early  in  February,  1881,  his 
name  was  recorded  for  the  last  time  among  those 
voting.  His  service  in  the  Senate,  therefore, 
lasted  but  little  more  than  four  years.  That  is  not 
long  enough  to  determine  how  well  qualified  a 
man  is  to  achieve  a  position  of  the  highest  influ 
ence  in  that  body.  Some  of  Mr.  Elaine's  natural 
and  acquired  faculties  were  disadvantageous  to 
him  at  the  beginning  of  his  senatorial  career,  and 
had  not  wholly  ceased  to  be  so  when  he  retired 
from  the  chamber.  The  Senate  is  a  continuous 
body,  and  always  contains  a  large  number  of 
members  who  have  seen  many  years  of  service. 
It  is  natural  for  them,  not  only  to  assume  as  of 
right  leadership  in  all  the  functions  of  the  Senate, 
but  also  to  discourage  anything  which  seems  like 
forwardness  on  the  part  of  new  members.  Mr. 
Blaine  was  not  one  who  could  be  repressed  by 
unwritten  laws  prescribing  the  conduct  of  juniors. 
If  any  one  should  have  been  permitted  to  take 
full  part  in  the  activities  of  the  Senate  immedi 
ately  upon  his  admission  to  a  seat,  he  was  surely 
such  a  man.  His  long  experience  in  Congress  had 
given  him  a  familiarity  with  all  the  public  ques 
tions  of  the  time  as  profound  as  that  enjoyed  by 
any  senator.  His  standing  as  a  political  leader  in 


THE    CHECK    IN    187G  213 

the  country  at  large  entitled  his  opinions  to  great 
weight.  No  one  in  either  branch  of  Congress  was 
more  ready  than  he  in  debate. 

Nevertheless  the  rule  tacitly  laid  down  and 
rigidly  enforced  by  the  seniors  made  no  exception 
in  his  case.  So  far  as  the  proverbial  senatorial 
courtesy  permitted,  the  veterans  of  the  Senate 
made  evident  their  feeling  that  Mr.  Elaine's  ac 
tive  intervention  in  debate  was  an  unwarranted 
intrusion.  Specific  examples  might  be,  but  of 
course  will  not  be,  given  by  the  score,  illustrat 
ing  the  cool,  supercilious  tone  in  which  his  re 
marks  in  debate  were  received  and  his  pungent 
questions  answered.  Those  who  care  to  examine 
one  illustration  will  find  it  in  the  debate  on  the 
distribution  of  the  Alabama  Claims  money  in  the 
Senate,  on  April  19,  1880. l  Not  that  Mr.  Elaine 
greatly  minded  the  chilly  courtesy  or  the  some 
times  almost  undisguised  hostility  of  his  inter 
locutors,  or  that  he  repaid  them  in  their  own  coin. 
He  was  accustomed  to  receive  as  well  as  to  give 
blows;  he  was  too  conscious  of  his  own  powers 
to  be  vanquished  on  the  floor  by  anything  except 
argument;  he  was  too  skilful  a  debater  to  be 
forced  to  lose  his  temper;  he  had  too  much  per 
sonal  pride  to  show  that  he  felt  it  if  the  antagonist 
in  his  prodding  touched  the  quick. 

1  Congressional  Record,  46th  Congress,  2d  Sess.,  part  2, 
p.  2515,  et  seq. 


214  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

In  a  few  years  more  he  would  have  ceased  to 
be  guilty  of  the  atrocious  crime  of  being  a  young 
man  in  the  Senate.  But  he  would  never  have  out 
grown  the  habit  of  frequent  interruption  of  the 
speeches  of  other  senators.  The  custom  of  the 
Senate  in  debate  is  different  from  that  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  although  inter 
ruptions  are  tolerated,  there  is  a  limit  beyond 
which  they  are  resented.  Mr.  Elaine  was  noted 
for  his  frequent  and  persistent  interjection  of 
little  speeches  into  the  speeches  of  his  colleagues, 
corrections  of  their  statements  made  in  a  dog 
matic  tone,  and  questions  intended  by  their  very 
form  to  expose  what  seemed  to  him  the  fallacies 
the  senator  on  the  floor  was  uttering.  It  is  little  to 
the  purpose  that  his  interruptions  almost  always 
served  to  throw  light  on  the  question  under  dis 
cussion.  It  was  an  importation  into  the  Senate 
debates  of  a  method  widely  different  from  that  to 
which  the  body  was  accustomed,  and  one  which 
the  senators  did  not  like. 

Aside  from  this  peculiarity,  which  was,  in 
deed,  a  part  of  his  nature,  and  which  had  been 
intensified  by  his  long  training  in  the  more  stir 
ring  and  turbulent  atmosphere  of  the  other  branch 
of  Congress,  Mr.  Blaine  had  all  the  qualifica 
tions  of  an  ideal  senator  —  wide  knowledge, 
cool  judgment,  patience  in  investigation,  and  the 
ability  to  express  himself  vigorously  and  felicit- 


THE   CHECK  IN   1876  215 

ously  in  convincing  argument,  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment  as  well  as  after  careful  preparation. 
That  he  had  not,  in  the  four  years  of  his  service  in 
the  Senate,  acquired  over  his  fellow  members  any 
thing  like  the  influence  he  had  possessed  in  the 
House,  nor  even  an  approach  to  the  reputation 
he  enjoyed  among  the  people  of  the  country,  is 
due  to  the  rigid  law  of  etiquette  that  prevails  in 
the  Senate,  under  which  a  member  must  pass 
through  a  novitiate  before  he  is  allowed  to  speak 
with  authority,  and  to  be  heard  with  respect. 


VIII 
IN   GARFIELD'S    CABINET 

DURING  practically  the  whole  period  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  service  in  Congress  the  conduct  of  the 
Republican  canvass  in  Maine  at  every  election 
was  entrusted  to  him.  In  all  that  time  —  almost 
twenty  years  —  no  contests  were  more  difficult, 
none  called  more  imperatively  for  the  exercise 
of  cool  judgment  and  for  sturdy  adherence  to 
political  principle,  than  the  last  three  in  which 
he  was  engaged. 

The  "greenback  idea"  did  not  at  the  outset 
make  much  progress  in  Maine.  At  all  events  it 
did  not  manifest  itself  in  a  breaking  of  party  ties 
so  early  as  it  did  elsewhere.  In  1876,  when  the 
National,  or  Greenback,  party  was  fully  organ 
ized,  there  were  but  a  few  hundred  votes  in  Maine 
for  Weaver,  the  party  candidate  for  president. 
But  in  1877  the  number  rose  to  more  than  five 
thousand,  and  in  the  spring  and  summer  months 
of  1878  the  inroads  which  the  new  organization 
was  making  in  the  Republican  party  were  cause 
for  serious  alarm,  and  led  to  earnest  discussion 
as  to  the  best  way  to  meet  and  quell  the  revolt. 
The  timid  were  in  favor  of  making,  in  the  state 


IN   GARFIELD'S   CABINET  217 

platform  of  the  party,  such  a  declaration  of  prin 
ciple,  or  lack  of  principle,  that  desertion  would 
cease  and  some  at  least  of  the  deserters  would  be 
drawn  back  into  the  ranks.  That  was  not  Mr. 
Elaine's  view  of  political  duty.  "  The  Republican 
party  may  be  doomed  this  year  to  general  defeat," 
he  wrote  to  one  of  the  timorous  souls,  "  but  you 
will  pardon  me  for  saying  that  if  it  should  attempt 
to  assume  the  ground  indicated  by  you,  it  would 
be  covered  with  ridicule  and  could  not  escape 
ignominy.  There  are  to  be  two  parties  in  this 
country  on  the  question  of  the  finances :  the  one 
for  'honest  money,'  the  other  for  'wild  inflation,' 
—  the  one  for  maintaining  the  national  honor, 
the  other  leading  to  the  verge  and  possibly  leap 
ing  over  the  precipice  of  repudiation." 

The  Republicans  of  Maine  stood  by  their 
record  in  favor  of  "  honest  money,"  and  were  de 
feated.  At  that  time  an  actual  majority  of  votes 
was  required  to  elect  a  governor.  The  combined 
vote  of  the  Democrats  and  the  Greenbackers 
exceeded  that  of  the  Republicans  by  some  ten 
thousand.  By  fusion  upon  candidates  they  car 
ried  the  legislature;  and  in  accordance  with  the 
constitutional  system  the  legislature  elected  as 
governor  the  Democratic  candidate,  and  divided 
the  other  state  offices  between  them.  For  the  first 
time  in  sixteen  years  the  Republicans  did  not  elect 
a  full  delegation  of  members  of  Congress.  A 


218  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Democrat  and  a  Greenbacker  were  chosen  in  two 
of  the  five  districts.  In  not  one  of  the  five  did  the 
Republican  candidate  receive  a  clear  majority. 

After  the  Maine  election  had  resulted  in  an 
honorable  defeat,  Mr.  Blaine  responded  to  the 
loud  calls  that  had  been  coming  to  him  from  other 
states,  and  entered  upon  a  notable  campaigning 
tour  in  the  West.  It  might  rather  be  called  a  tri 
umphal  progress,  for  he  was  everywhere  received 
with  an  enthusiasm  which  indicated  the  highest 
popularity.  The  Republican  newspapers  of  the 
cities  in  which  he  was  announced  to  speak  began 
days  in  advance  of  his  arrival  to  sound  his  praise 
and  to  call  the  attention  of  their  readers  to  the 
political  feast  that  was  in  store  for  them.  His 
movements  were  chronicled  as  though  he  were  a 
prince.  His  admirers  assembled  in  great  throngs 
at  the  railway  stations  through  which  he  was  to 
pass,  crowds  of  men  greeted  him  on  his  arrival  in 
the  cities  where  he  was  to  speak,  the  surrounding 
country  poured  out  its  thousands  to  swell  his 
audience.  His  reception  in  Iowa  was  particularly 
noteworthy,  and  the  newspapers  of  that  state 
could  find  no  words  too  extravagant  to  apply  to 
him. 

A  remarkable  situation  developed  in  Maine 
after  the  state  election  in  September,  1879.  The 
entire  state  government  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Fusionists  — Democrats  and  Greenbackers.  After 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  219 

an  earnest  contest  the  Republicans  regained 
most  of  the  ground  they  had  lost  the  year  before. 
Their  candidate  for  governor  received  a  sub 
stantial  plurality  of  the  votes,  although  not  the 
majority  necessary  to  elect  him;  and  both 
branches  of  the  legislature  were  recovered.  Not 
long  after  the  election,  when  it  was  supposed  that 
the  result  was  known  beyond  all  doubt,  rumors 
began  to  fly  about  in  Democratic  circles  that  the 
governor  and  council  had  discovered  grave  errors 
in  the  returns  and  that  a  majority  of  Fusionists 
had  been  elected  to  the  legislature.  In  Repub 
lican  circles  the  version  of  the  affair  was  that 
the  governor  and  council  were  plotting  to  reverse 
the  actual  result  of  the  election,  and  to  "  count 
out  "  the  Republican  majority.  Ultimately  it  was 
proved  beyond  question  or  dispute  that  the  Re 
publican  version  was  correct.  The  official  returns 
were,  under  the  law,  in  the  custody  of  the  gover 
nor  and  his  council,  all  of  whom  were  Fusionists, 
elected  by  the  legislature  in  January,  1879.  It 
was  never  proved,  —  indeed  the  matter  was  never 
fully  investigated,  —  who  actually  committed  the 
frauds,  but  it  is  wholly  impossible  that  they 
should  have  been  committed  without  the  guilty 
connivance  of  many  of  the  chief  men  in  the  state 
government.  The  names  of  Republican  candi 
dates  were  changed  on  many  of  the  refurns,  as, 
for  example,  by  crossing  a  T,  the  middle  initial  of 


220  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

a  candidate's  name,  thus  changing  it  to  an  F, 
in  the  official  return  of  a  town,  and  thus  making 
the  votes  for  the  Republican  candidate  in  that 
town  "  scattering."  A  great  variety  of  such  alter 
ations  were  made,  in  every  case  to  the  loss  of 
Republican  candidates  for  the  legislature.  Some 
real  errors  were  discovered  in  returns  favorable 
to  Fusionists,  and  these  were  returned  to  Fusion- 
ist  town  clerks  for  correction.  No  Republican 
was  permitted  to  see  the  returns,  and  as  it  was  not 
known  in  which  cities  and  towns  the  pretended 
errors  had  been  found,  no  corrected  returns 
could  be  obtained  to  substitute  for  those  which 
had  been  tampered  with  and  falsified. 

Every  change  cost  the  Republicans  a  member; 
no  Democrat  or  Greenbacker  lost  his  seat.  The 
alterations  were  just  sufficient  to  return  a  Fusion 
majority  to  each  House.  The  governor  and  coun 
cil  issued  certificates  to  those  thus  counted  in. 
Of  course  a  fraud  of  this  sort,  if  successful  so 
far  as  the  organization  of  the  legislature  was  con 
cerned,  could  not  be  overthrown.  No  Republican 
contestant  would  be  admitted,  and  the  legisla 
ture,  which  would  continue  to  be  Fusionist  to  the 
end,  would  elect  a  Fusionist  governor,  council, 
and  all  state  officers,  —  for  in  Maine  no  state 
officer  except  the  governor  is  elected  by  the  people. 

Mr.  Biaine  was  again  campaigning  in  the  West 
when  this  plot  was  hatched,  but  on  learning  what 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  221 

was  doing  he  hurried  home,  and  from  first  to  last 
managed  the  rescue  of  the  state  from  the  hands 
of  the  conspirators.  The  situation  was  most  dif 
ficult.  A  majority  of  those  who  held  certificates 
of  election  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  were  Fusionists,  and  there  was  not  one 
among  all  those  who  had  been  counted  in  and 
who  knew  that  they  had  not  been  elected,  who 
had  sufficient  political  honor  and  self-respect  to 
decline  his  certificate  or  even  to  absent  himself 
from  the  meeting  of  the  legislature.  Those  who 
held  these  certificates  had  the  advantage  of  regu 
larity.  The  State  House  was  in  possession  of  the 
Fusionist  governor  and  council.  Moreover,  not 
merely  were  threats  made  that  the  Fusion  legis 
lature  should  be  installed  by  force,  if  necessary, 
but  the  adherents  of  the  state  government  assem 
bled  at  Augusta  prepared  and  equipped  them 
selves  to  carry  out  the  threats.  As  the  time  for 
the  meeting  of  the  legislature  drew  near,  the  State 
House  was  made  ready  to  resist  a  siege,  and 
armed  men  were  quartered  and  fed  within  it. 

The  Republicans  were  resolved  that  the  fraud 
should  not  be  consummated,  and  many  of  them 
were  in  favor  of  meeting  force  with  force.  Mr. 
Blaine,  to  whose  opinion  all  the  cooler  men  de 
ferred,  and  whose  plan  of  operation  they  adopted, 
would  have  no  violence.  He  had  a  better  way  in 
mind.  It  would  occupy  too  much  space  to  tell  the 


222  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

whole  story  of  the  conflict.  Fortunately  the 
major-general  of  the  militia  of  Maine  was  ex- 
Governor  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain,  a  prominent 
general  of  the  Civil  War,  and  he  placed  himself 
on  the  side  of  fairness  and  honesty.  Although 
there  were  rival  legislatures  for.  a  time,  the  Re 
publicans  managed,  under  the  guidance  of  Blaine, 
to  get  the  whole  question  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  state,  which  decided  unanimously 
that  the  legislature,  consisting  of  the  Republicans 
who  held  certificates  and  those  who  had  been 
counted  out,  constituted  the  legal  legislature.  The 
Fusionists  yielded  at  last  with  bad  grace,  the  Re 
publican  candidate  for  governor  was  declared 
elected,  the  other  state  officers  were  chosen  and 
installed  in  office,  and  the  danger  of  violence 
came  to  an  end.  Subsequently  a  joint  committee 
investigated  the  alteration  of  the  returns  and  is 
sued  a  report  in  which  specimens  of  the  altera 
tions  and  forgeries  were  printed  in  facsimile.  A 
minority  of  the  committee  reported  briefly  that 
"though  they  cannot  deny  that  the  recital  of 
facts  in  the  [majority]  report  is  substantially 
in  accordance  with  the  evidence,"  they  could 
not  "give  their  assent  to  all  of  the  arguments 
and  conclusions  of  such  majority  report."  They 
abstained  from  specifying  to  which  of  the  con 
clusions  they  did  not  agree.  But  they  did  ex 
press  their  regret  that  not  one  of  the  members 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  223 

of  the  council  had  attempted  "to  explain  the 
irregularities  which  seem  to  exist."  Only  one 
member  of  the  council  had  responded  to  the  re 
quest  to  appear  before  the  committee,  and  "he 
failed  to  explain  the  irregularities  which  had  been 
proved." 

The  daring  attempt  to  steal  the  state  govern 
ment  is  thus  practically  admitted  by  the  two  high- 
minded  Fusionists  who  served  on  the  committee. 
The  credit  of  thwarting  the  plot  was  universally 
ascribed  to  Elaine  alone,  although,  of  course, 
much  of  his  success  was  due  to  the  cordial  and 
courageous  cooperation  of  General  Chamberlain. 
It  is  not  generally  known,  though  it  was  always 
suspected,  that  Mr.  Elaine  was  in  danger  of  his 
life  during  those  stirring  days  in  January,  1880. 
But  it  is  a  fact.  Not  long  ago  a  visitor  at  the 
State  House  informed  the  state  librarian  that  he 
and  another  Fusionist  were  stationed  in  the 
cupola  of  the  State  House,  and  that  one  day  they 
saw  Blaine  walking  up  and  down  in  his  back 
yard,  only  a  few  hundred  yards  away.  His  com 
panion  raised  his  rifle  and  aimed  at  Blaine,  but 
he  —  the  librarian's  informant,  —  compelled  the 
man  to  lower  his  arm,  and  the  shot  was  not  fired. 

It  was  now  the  year  of  the  presidential  election. 
Congress  had  been  more  than  a  month  in  session, 
and  president-making  was,  much  more  than  leg 
islation,  the  occupation  of  the  minds  of  public 


224  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

men.  The  movement  to  make  Blaine  the  Re 
publican  candidate  had  lost  none  of  its  force 
since  1876,  had,  indeed,  rather  increased  in  mo 
mentum.  Yet  he  could  not  be  induced  to  do  any 
thing  to  promote  his  own  candidacy;  he  could 
not  even  be  persuaded  to  leave  Augusta  and  go 
to  the  scene  of  action  until  the  "  count-out "  had 
been  defeated  by  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  Nor  after  he  returned  to  Washington  did 
he  adopt  a  course  differing  in  any  respect  from 
that  which  he  had  pursued  in  1876.  Those  who 
busied  themselves  to  promote  his  candidacy  did 
so  in  their  own  way  without  instructions  or  guid 
ance  from  him.  He  would  not  have  been  the  man 
he  was  if  he  had  been  indifferent,  or  if  he  had  not 
been  touched  by  the  ardent  devotion  of  his  friends. 
But,  past  master  in  the  arts  of  politics  and  of  elec 
tioneering  though  he  was,  he  had  no  personal 
part  in  the  work  of  obtaining  delegates  to  the 
convention. 

The  political  situation  at  that  time  was  pecu 
liar.  In  1876  the  influence  of  General  Grant's 
administration  had  been  hostile  to  Blaine,  and 
had  been  divided  between  Morton  and  Conk- 
ling.  Grant  himself  had  taken  offence  at  some 
thing  said  or  done  by  Blaine,  and  the  two  men 
were  not  on  speaking  terms.  Conkling's  life 
long  hostility  was  well  known.  Some  of  Elaine's 
friends  attributed  his  defeat  in  1876  to  Conk- 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  225 

ling's  management,  and  it  is  certain  that  the 
transfer  of  the  New  York  vote  to  Hayes  at  Cin 
cinnati  decided  that  contest.  In  1880  Grant  had 
returned  from  his  grand  tour  around  the  world, 
during  which  he  was  feted  and  honored  as  few 
men  have  been  who  wore  crowns,  and  the  idea 
was  broached  that,  although  a  third  term  for  a 
president  immediately  following  two  continuous 
terms  was  contrary  to  American  tradition  and 
to  good  policy,  a  third  term  after  an  interim  of 
four  years  was  not  objectionable.  Mr.  Conkling 
was  the  prime  mover  in  the  attempt  to  nominate 
General  Grant,  for  at  that  time  his  own  candi 
dacy  was  hopeless.  The  idea  of  a  third  term 
for  the  general  was  exceedingly  attractive  to  a 
large  number  of  Republicans  and  the  movement 
had  surprising  success. 

So  far  as  the  list  of  candidates  for  the  nomina 
tion  was  concerned,  the  condition  was  analogous 
to  that  in  1876.  The  Grant  forces,  if  they  may  be 
so  denominated,  which  had  been  divided  between 
Senators  Morton  and  Conkling,  were  now  united 
in  favor  of  Grant  himself,  and  they  were  aug 
mented  by  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  which,  under  the  guiding  hand  of  Mr. 
J.  Donald  Cameron,  had  been  brought  to  the 
support  of  the  third  term,  together  with  more 
than  one  half  of  those  of  Illinois,  which  were  se 
cured  by  the  influence  of  General  John  A.  Logan. 


226  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

All  combined  they  made  General  Grant  the  lead 
ing  candidate.  Senator  John  Sherman  succeeded 
to  the  vote  of  Ohio,  given  four  years  before  to 
Governor  Hayes,  who  was  not  a  candidate  for 
reelection,  and  he  also  had  a  part  of  the  anti- 
Blaine  vote  cast  for  Bristow  in  1876,  the  rest  of 
which  was  bestowed  upon  Senator  George  F. 
Edmunds,  of  Vermont  and  upon  Mr.  Elihu  B. 
Washburne,  of  Illinois.  Mr.  Windom,  of  Minne 
sota,  took  the  place  as  a  minor  candidate  held 
four  years  before  by  Governor  Jewell,  of  Con 
necticut. 

The  fundamental  difference  between  the  situa 
tion  in  the  two  conventions  was  that  in  1876  there 
was  but  one  candidate  against  whom  the  friends 
of  all  the  others  were  ready,  for  various  reasons, 
to  combine,  although  not  ready  to  combine  to 
support  any  one  man  ;  whereas  in  1880  there 
were  two  candidates,  nearly  equally  matched  in 
the  number  of  their  supporters,  and  having  more 
than  three  fourths  of  all  the  delegates,  to  both  of 
whom  most  of  the  other  delegates  were  strongly 
opposed.  Had  not  the  friends  of  Grant  and  of 
Blaine  been  also  mutually  antagonistic,  one  or  the 
other  of  them  would  have  been  nominated.  But 
Mr.  Conkling,  who  led  the  Grant  contingent 
with  force  and  skill,  was  as  earnest  in  his  effort  to 
defeat  Blaine  as  he  was  to  carry  the  nomination 
for  his  own  candidate.  Blaine,  too,  who  watched 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  227 

the  contest  from  his  library  in  Washington,  and 
was  in  constant  consultation  with  his  representa 
tives  at  Chicago,  aside  from  his  personal  interest 
in  his  own  fortunes,  and  his  opposition  on  prin 
ciple  to  a  third  term,  had  both  his  own  grievance 
against  General  Grant,  and  more  than  one  old 
score  against  Mr.  Conkling,  as  motives  to  deter 
him  from  consenting  that  any  of  his  own  sup 
porters  should  go  over  to  Grant.  The  outcome  of 
these  several  antagonisms,  when  it  developed, 
seemed  not  only  natural,  but  inevitable.  Yet  it 
was  not  reached  until  it  was  evident  that  neither 
of  the  two  leading  candidates  could  be  nominated. 
It  was  a  long  contest.  The  roll  of  states  was 
not  called  the  first  time  for  the  nomination  of  a 
candidate  for  President  until  the  fifth  day  of  the 
convention.  General  Grant  had  304  votes  and 
Mr.  Elaine  had  284,  just  one  vote  less  than  he 
received  on  the  first  trial  of  strength  in  the  con 
vention  of  1876.  The  roll  was  called  again  and 
again,  until  on  that  day  the  delegates  had  recorded 
themselves  twenty-eight  times.  Not  once  did 
General  Grant  receive  more  than  309  votes  or 
less  than  302.  Mr.  Elaine's  vote  varied  between 
285  and  276.  On  the  next  day  eight  votes  more 
were  taken.  Grant's  supporters  held  firm,  and  on 
the  thirty-fifth  vote  increased  to  3 13.  A  diversion 
in  favor  of  Senator  John  Sherman  took  place, 
chiefly  to  the  disadvantage  of  Mr.  Elaine,  who  had 


228  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

but  270  on  the  thirty-second  vote.  The  impos 
sibility  of  nominating  either  of  the  leading  candi 
dates,  as  well  as  the  disinclination  of  the  conven 
tion  to  unite  on  Mr.  Sherman,  being  now  mani 
fest,  a  movement  in  favor  of  General  Garfield 
was  begun.  Garfield  was  a  member  of  the 
convention,  was  the  recognized  leader  and  man 
ager  of  Sherman's  candidacy,  and  had  been  con 
spicuously  and  agreeably  prominent  in  the  pro 
ceedings.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Blaine  himself 
sanctioned  and  encouraged  the  break  in  General 
Garfield's  favor,  and  on  the  thirty-sixth  vote  he 
was  nominated.  Grant  held  firmly  his  306  votes, 
two  more  than  he  had  at  the  beginning. 

Although  Blaine  was  defeated,  the  dogged  per 
sistence  of  his  adherents  was,  as  it  was  also  in 
the  case  of  General  Grant,  a  great  personal  tri 
umph.  As  in  1876,  his  support  was  far  more  gen 
eral  than  was  that  of  any  other  candidate.  First 
and  last  there  were  only  six  of  the  forty-seven 
States  and  territories  which  did  not  give  him  a 
single  vote,  —  Arkansas,  Colorado,  Missouri, 
North  Carolina,  Vermont,  —  and  Massachu 
setts.  The  attack  upon  the  Commonwealth  when 
the  statue  of  Governor  King  was  presented  was 
not  forgotten.  General  Grant  had  votes  from 
only  twenty-nine  states  and  territories  when  his 
support  was  at  its  maximum,  and  on  the  final  vote 
from  only  twenty-five.  Moreover,  no  less  than  120 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  229 

of  Grant's  votes,  on  the  first  roll-call,  were  given 
by  delegates  from  the  twelve  states  of  the  Con 
federacy,  not  one  of  which  would  give  a  single 
electoral  vote  for  the  Republican  candidate, 
against  twenty-six  votes  from  the  same  states  for 
Blaine. 

As  has  been  already  remarked,  Conkling  was 
held  answerable,  by  many  of  Elaine's  friends, 
for  the  defeat  of  his  nomination  in  1876.  Un 
doubtedly  it  was  due  to  the  same  gentleman 
that  he  was  not  nominated  in  1880.  The  Hon. 
Charles  Emory  Smith  has  made  an  exceedingly 
interesting  contribution  to  political  history  in 
connection  with  this  convention.1  He  says  that 
Senator  John  P.  Jones,  of  Nevada,  a  close  friend 
of  Conkling,  took  frequent  occasion  before  the 
convention  met  to  urge  upon  him  and  other 
Grant  leaders  that  they  should  make  Blaine  the 
candidate  if  they  could  not  nominate  the  gen 
eral.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  idea 
was  favorably  received  by  Conkling,  for  his  bio 
grapher  quotes  him  as  having  declared  "that 
either  Grant  or  Blaine  should  be  nominated; 
there  must  be  no  dark  horse."  2  Mr.  Smith  re 
ports  that  after  the  nomination  was  made  Conk 
ling  said  to  him  "  that  he  would  far  rather  have 
had  Blaine  nominated  than  Garfield." 

1  Philadelphia  Saturday  Evening  Post,  June  8,  1901. 

2  P.  660. 


230  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

On  the  other  hand  Elaine  was  not  strongly 
opposed  at  that  time  to  the  nomination  of  Conk- 
ling.  Mr.  Smith  says  that  Senator  Henry  W. 
Blair,  of  New  Hampshire,  suggested  to  Blaine 
that  if  he  could  not  be  nominated  it  would  be 
well  to  take  Conkling,  and  Blaine  agreed  that 
Conkling  was  a  strong  man  and  that  he  could 
carry  the  necessary  state  of  New  York.  "  Yes," 
he  said,  "nominate  Conkling  if  you  think  best." 
Mr.  Blaine's  words  were  reported  through  a  third 
person  to  Conkling,  who  received  the  sugges 
tion  with  surprise,  but  expressed  his  irrevoca 
ble  determination  to  bring  about  the  nomination 
of  Grant  if  possible.  On  the  second  day  of  the 
voting  for  a  candidate  the  symptoms  of  a  break 
in  favor  of  General  Garfield  appeared  on  the 
thirty-fifth  roll-call.  When,  on  the  thirty-sixth 
trial,  Maine  itself  transferred  its  votes  to  Gar- 
field,  Senator  Jones  went  to  Conkling  and  urged 
him  to  stop  the  stampede  by  casting  the  whole 
vote  of  the  state  for  Blaine.  Conkling  replied 
that  there  was  not  time  to  poll  the  delegation. 
"Cast  the  vote  and  poll  the  delegation  after 
ward,"  replied  Jones.  Conkling  hesitated,  but 
could  not  bring  himself  to  follow  the  course 
proposed.  Again  New  York  gave  fifty  votes  to 
Grant,  and  the  other  twenty  to  Garfield.  The 
stampede  continued,  and  Garfield  was  chosen. 
There  was  probably  never  afterward  an  occa- 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  231 

sion  so  favorable  as  was  this  for  a  reconciliation 
between  the  long  estranged  statesmen,  a  recon 
ciliation  which,  if  it  could  have  been  hearty  and 
sincere,  might  have  changed  greatly  the  political 
history  of  the  country,  perhaps  even  the  entire 
history  of  the  countries  of  the  two  American 
inents. 

No  nomination  could  have  been  more  agree 
able  and  satisfactory  to  Mr.  Blaine  personally 
than  that  of  General  Garfield.  They  had  been 
not  merely  friendly,  but  intimate,  from  the  day 
in  December,  1863,  when  they  each  for  the  first 
time  took  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
They  did  not  always  agree  on  public  questions, 
but  their  principles  and  political  ideals  were 
substantially  identical. 

Mr.  Blaine  entered  the  political  canvass  with 
enthusiasm,  and  devoted  more  than  usual  atten 
tion  to  the  election  in  Maine.  The  constitution 
of  that  state  had  just  been  changed,  so  that  now 
a  plurality  was  sufficient  for  the  election  of  a 
governor.  The  Fusionists  united  on  one  candi 
date  and  carried  the  state  by  a  majority  of  two 
of  three  hundred,  but  this  was  changed  to  a  plu 
rality  of  about  9000  for  Garfield  in  November. 
Mr.  Blaine  gave  the  last  two  months  of  the  cam 
paign  to  a  stumping  tour  in  the  West,  where,  as 
always,  he  was  greatly  in  demand. 

During  the  whole  canvass  he  was  in  constant 


232  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

correspondence  with  Garfield,  who  even  con 
sulted  with  him  in  the  preparation  of  his  letter  of 
acceptance.  He  asked  advice  specifically  on  four 
points,  and  as  to  two  of  them,  the  Chinese  ques 
tion  and  the  civil  service  plank,  he  requested 
Elaine  to  draft  the  necessary  paragraphs.1  Mr. 
Elaine  complied  only  so  far  as  to  suggest  the 
proper  stand,  in  his  opinion,  to  be  taken  on  the 
Chinese  question.  He  assured  the  general  that  he 
needed  help  from  no  man  on  the  financial  ques 
tion;  and  "you  will  find  it  easy  to  treat  it  [the 
Southern  question]  in  a  manner  that  will  satisfy 
all  shades  of  Republican  opinion." 

General  Garfield  was  triumphantly  elected  in 
November,  and  before  the  month  closed  he  had 
tendered  to  Elaine  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State.  The  offer  was  not  immediately  accepted, 
for  notwithstanding  the  honor  which  the  position 
implied,  it  was  not  at  once  clear  that  duties  so 
radically  different  from  those  that  had  occupied 
him  during  the  eighteen  years  of  his  public  life  in 
Washington  would  be  as  congenial  as  those  aris 
ing  from  a  membership  in  the  Senate,  from  which 
only  a  political  revolution  could  remove  him.  But 
while  he  was  considering  the  matter,  he  was  not 
sparing  of  his  advice  to  the  President-elect  as  to 
the  other  portfolios,  and  as  to  the  general  course 

1  Garfield  to  Elaine,  June  29,  1880.  Gail  Hamilton's 
Life  of  Elaine,  p.  486. 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  233 

of  his  administration.  In  a  remarkable  letter  to 
Garfield,  written  on  December  10,  1880,1  he 
analyzes  the  three  forces  in  the  Republican  con 
vention  and  comments  upon  them  singly.  Grant 
had  the  delegates  from  only  thirty-two  sure  Re 
publican  districts  in  the  country;  Sherman, 
Edmunds,  and  Washburne  had  thirty-six;  he, 
Blaine,  had  ninety-nine.  This  situation  sug 
gested  to  him  the  threefold  division  of  the  party : 
"  first,  the  great  body  of  the  North,  with  congres 
sional  representation  and  electoral  strength  be 
hind  it,  is  with  the  section  which  for  convenience 
of  designation  I  will  call  the  Blaine  section,  —  I 
mean  the  strength  behind  me  in  two  national 
conventions.  .  .  .  Now  this  Blaine  section  is  all 
yours,  with  some  additional  strength  that  Blaine 
could  not  get,  and  represents  the  reliable  strong 
background  of  preference,  friendship,  and  love 
on  which  your  administration  must  rest  for  suc 
cess.  I  use  the  designation  '  Blaine '  only  for  con 
venience  to  identify  the  class.  They  are  now  all 
Garfield  without  rebate  or  reserve,  '  waiving  de 
mand  and  notice.'" 

The  second  class  was  "  the  Grant  section,  tak 
ing  all  the  South  practically,  with  the  machine  in 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois  —  and  hav 
ing  the  aid  of  rule  or  ruin  leaders."  The  third 
section  consisted  of  "the  reformers  by  profes- 
1  Gail  Hamilton's  Life  of  Blaine,  p.  490. 


234  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

sion  "  whom  Mr.  Blaine  never  esteemed  highly  as 
political  guides,  and  of  whom,  in  this  letter,  he 
speaks  in  derogatory  terms.  "They  are  to  be 
treated  with  respect,  but  they  are  the  worst  pos 
sible  political  advisers/' 

All  this  was  preliminary  to  the  proposition, 
"  You  are  to  have  a  second  term  or  to  be  over 
thrown."  He  advised  Garfield  that  his  true 
friends  were  to  be  found  in  the  first  section ;  that 
the  second  section  would  "  accept  your  adminis 
tration  because  they  cannot  help  it,"  but  would 
always  be  on  the  watch  for  an  opening  for  "  a 
restoration  of  Grant;"  that  "the  third  section 
can  be  made  to  cooperate  harmoniously  with  the 
first,  but  never  with  the  second,  —  you  can  see 
that  at  a  glance,"  and  that  "they  can  be  easily 
dealt  with  and  can  be  hitched  to  your  adminis 
tration  with  ease."  The  letter  was  not  specific 
in  advice  as  to  methods,  but  its  general  purport 
was  clearly  that  great  skill  would  be  required  in 
handling  the  three  sections  so  as  to  keep  the  party 
harmonious.  Garfield  in  reply  asked  Elaine's 
views  as  to  the  best  method  of  recognizing  the 
Grant  section,  "  so  as  not  to  be  shackled  and  yet 
to  do  fair  justice."  There  was  evidently  further 
correspondence  on  the  subject,  for  Blaine  in  one 
letter  expressed  an  opinion  that  the  "second  sec 
tion  "  would  take  a  proposed  cabinet  appointment 
favorably. 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  235 

On  the  20th  of  December  Mr.  Elaine  accepted 
the  tender  of  the  State  department.  It  is  a 
pleasant  evidence  of  the  cordial  personal  rela 
tions  between  the  families  of  the  two  men  that  the 
letter  of  acceptance  was  sent  under  cover  to  Mrs. 
Garfield,  in  order  that  she  might  be  the  first  to 
receive  it.  The  letter  itself  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  productions  of  Mr.  Elaine's  pen,  and  is 
such  a  manifestation  of  friendship,  loyalty,  and 
self-abnegation  as  has  rarely  been  made  by  one 
statesman  toward  another  who  might  be  regarded 
as,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  successful  rival.  Having 
expressed  his  gratitude  for  the  offer  and  his 
acceptance  of  it,  Mr.  Elaine  proceeded :  — 

"It  is  proper  for  me  to  add  that  I  make  this 
decision,  not  for  the  honor  of  the  promotion  it 
gives  me  in  the  public  service,  but  because  I  be 
lieve  I  can  be  useful  to  the  country  and  the  party, 
—  useful  to  you  as  the  responsible  leader  of  the 
party  and  the  great  head  of  the  government.  .  .  . 

"  In  accepting  this  important  post  I  shall  give 
all  that  I  am  and  all  that  I  can  hope  to  be  freely 
and  joyfully  to  your  service.  You  need  no  pledge 
of  my  loyalty  both  in  heart  and  in  act.  I  should 
be  false  to  myself  did  I  not  prove  true  to  the  great 
trust  you  confide  to  me,  and  to  your  own  personal 
and  political  fortunes  in  the  present  and  in  the 
future. 

"Your   administration   must    be   made   bril- 


236  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

liantly  successful  and  strong  in  the  confidence 
and  pride  of  the  people ;  not  obviously  directing 
its  energies  to  reelection,  but  compelling  that 
result  by  the  logic  of  events  and  by  the  imperious 
necessities  of  the  situation. 

"  To  that  most  desirable  consummation  I  feel 
that,  next  to  yourself,  I  can  contribute  more  in 
fluence  than  any  other  man.  I  say  this,  not  from 
egotism  or  vainglory,  but  merely  as  a  deduction 
from  an  analysis  of  the  political  forces  which 
have  been  at  work  in  the  country  for  five  years 
past,  and  which  will  be  operative  for  many  years 
to  come. 

"  I  hail  it  as  one  of  the  happiest  circumstances 
connected  with  this  important  affair  that  in  ally 
ing  my  political  fortunes  with  yours  —  or  rather 
merging  mine  in  yours  —  my  heart  goes  with  my 
head,  and  that  I  carry  to  you  not  only  political 
support  but  personal  and  devoted  friendship. 
I  can  but  regard  it  as  somewhat  remarkable  that 
two  men  of  the  same  age,  entering  Congress  at 
the  same  time,  influenced  by  the  same  aims  and 
ambitions,- should  never,  for  a  single  moment,  in 
eighteen  years,  have  a  misunderstanding  or  a 
coolness,  and  that  their  friendship  has  steadily 
strengthened  with  their  strength. 

"It  is  this  fact  which  has  led  me  to  the  mo 
mentous  conclusion  embodied  in  this  letter,  - 
for  however  much  I  might  admire  you  as  a  states- 


IN   GARFIELD'S   CABINET  237 

man,  I  would  not  enter  your  cabinet  if  I  did  not 
believe  in  you  as  a  man  and  love  you  as  a  friend." 

The  most  malignant  of  Elaine's  enemies  has 
never  insinuated  that  in  his  conduct  he  failed  in 
the  slightest  degree  to  fulfil  his  pledge  of  abso 
lute  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  President.  His 
ambition  was  not  to  promote  his  own  fortunes, 
but  to  contribute  all  that  he  could  toward  making 
the  reelection  of  Garfield  inevitable  "  by  the  logic 
of  events  and  by  the  imperious  necessities  of  the 
situation."  He  took  the  most  eager  interest  in  the 
choice  of  the  other  secretaries,  and  was  most  free 
with  his  advice  both  as  to  the  principles  that 
should  govern  the  selection  and  as  to  the  persons 
to  whom  portfolios  should  be  offered.  Inasmuch 
as  the  Garfield  Cabinet  was  not,  on  the  whole,  a 
strong  one,  it  has  sometimes  been  charged  that 
Blaine  purposely  induced  the  President  to  select 
men  whom  he  could  dominate,  and  that  he  did  in 
fact  wield  an  influence  in  the  Cabinet  which  over 
shadowed  that  of  the  President  himself,  as  well 
as  that  of  his  colleagues. 

The  accusation  is  not  well  founded.  Mr. 
Blaine  urged  the  choice  of  Senator  Allison  for  the 
Treasury  department  from  the  beginning,  and 
in  the  strongest  terms  he  could  command.1  Gen 
eral  Garfield  agreed  to  the  choice,  but  Mr. 

1  He  was  accused,  by  enemies  who  did  not  know,  of  having 
kept  Mr.  Allison  out  of  the  cabinet. 


238  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

Allison  could  not  be  induced  to  leave  the  Senate. 
Blame  also  assented  in  the  most  hearty  way  to 
the  appointment  of  Mr.  Wayne  McVeagh  as 
Attorney  General,  and  supplied  the  President 
elect  with  an  additional  reason  for  choosing 
him,  although  McVeagh  was  a  strong  man,  and 
was  then  and  afterward  most  unfriendly  to  the 
Secretary  of  State.  The  truth  is,  and  was  then, 
that  a  President  can  rarely  persuade  a  man  of  the 
first  rank  to  relinquish  an  assured  position  in 
either  branch  of  Congress  and  exchange  for  it  a 
brief  tenure  of  an  executive  department.  An  ex 
amination  of  the  recent  lists  of  cabinet  officers 
shows  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  men  who 
have  never  previously  held  any  office  or  position 
whatever  under  the  national  government. 

It  is  true  that  the  President  leaned  heavily  and 
confidently  upon  his  Secretary  of  State,  con 
sulted  him  at  all  times,  and  probably  followed 
his  advice  almost  invariably.  But  the  same  fact 
might  almost  certainly  be  stated  with  equal  cor 
rectness  another  way:  that  the  two  men  con 
sulted  together  and  were  almost  invariably  agreed 
upon  the  course  to  be  pursued,  no  matter  which 
was  the  first  to  suggest  it.  For  Garfield  himself 
was  a  man  of  wide  experience  in  public  affairs, 
of  strong  opinions,  and  of  sturdy  principles,  to 
which  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  adhered 
obstinately  when  to  do  so  seemed  to  ensure  his 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  239 

extinction  as  a  public  man.  In  whatever  form 
the  statement  may  be  made,  it  is  true  that  there 
were  ties  of  the  closest  personal  friendship  and  re 
lations  of  the  most  unbounded  mutual  confidence 
between  them. 

The  early  days  of  the  administration  were 
marked  by  the  unhappy  episode  of  the  New  York 
collectorship  and  the  breach  with  Senator  Conk- 
ling.  Once  again  Blaine  and  Conkling  clashed, 
for  rightly  or  wrongly  the  senator  attributed  the 
selection  of  Judge  Robertson  to  the  influence  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  It  may  be  said  of  the  inci 
dent  that  it  was  not  an  example  of  the  skill  which 
Blaine  had  a  few  months  before  declared  to  be 
required  in  handling  the  "  second  section  "  of  the 
party,  at  the  same  time  that  it  proved  the  truth 
of  his  remark  in  the  same  connection  that  the  sec 
tion  contained  "  rule  or  ruin  leaders." 

But  this  little  cloud  would  surely  soon  have 
disappeared  from  the  sky,  for  the  administration 
was  winning  its  way  to  the  hearts  of  the  people 
when,  on  that  fatal  day  in  July,  the  President  was 
laid  low  by  the  bullet  of  the  assassin.  Blaine  was 
by  his  side,  raised  his  head,  and  stood  by  him 
until  he  was  removed  to  the  White  House,  whence 
but  a  short  hour  before  he  had  gone  with  the 
buoyant  spirits  of  a  college  lad  starting  on  his 
summer  vacation.  Then  followed  weary  months 
of  anxiety,  brief  flashes  of  hope  alternating  with 


240  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

long  periods  of  despairing  solicitude,  until  the 
end  came,  in  September.  During  the  long  weeks 
of  the  President's  gradual  decline,  Mr.  Blaine's 
task  was  one  of  extreme  difficulty.  He  was  at 
once  the  faithful  friend,  watching  with  fearful 
apprehension  by  the  bedside  of  the  suffering 
President;  the  trusted  lieutenant,  carrying  on 
the  business  of  his  own  department,  and  repre 
senting  to  a  certain  extent  his  chief  in  the  over 
sight  of  the  whole;  and  the  agent  of  the  people, 
through  whom  they  obtained  exact  and  truthful 
statements  of  the  condition  of  the  President  from 
day  to  day.  If  we  except  the  members  of  General 
Garfield's  family,  the  mental  strain  endured  by 
Mr.  Elaine  during  these  summer  months  was 
greater  than  that  to  which  any  other  person  was 
subjected ;  and  when  the  President  died,  his  per 
sonal  grief  and  the  probability,  which  soon  became 
a  certainty,  that  the  great  plans  he  had  laid  out  for 
the  future  could  not  be  consummated  by  him,  com 
bined  to  make  the  blow  as  severe  as  any  states 
man  could  receive.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
Blaine  was  never  quite  the  same  after  the  death 
of  Garfield  as  he  was  before.  The  flow  of  animal 
spirits  was  not  quite  so  free.  The  element  of 
tragedy  had  entered  into  his  life.1  Less  frequent 

1  Writing  to  his  friend,  the  Hon.  S.  B.  Elkins,  September  30, 
he  said,  "The  death  of  Garfield  is  a  fresh  grief  to  me.  My 
enjoyment  of  public  life  seems  gone." 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  241 

became  the  occasions  when  he  abandoned  him 
self  to  his  natural  joviality,  —  when  he  gave  the 
impression  to  those  about  him  that  he  had  the 
happy,  care-free  air  of  his  early  manhood.  Per 
haps  the  tone  of  greater  seriousness  which  distin 
guished  him  from  this  time  onward  was  not  wholly 
the  result  of  his  grief  and  disappointment,  but 
was  due  also  in  large  measure  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  beginning  more  than  ever  to  think  great 
thoughts,  to  extend  his  vision  beyond  even  the 
broad  oceans  that  separated  his  country  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  to  dream  of  the  greatness 
and  glory  that  now  seem  to  be  in  store  for  it. 

For  in  one  important  respect  Blaine  was  dif 
ferent  from  every  Secretary  of  State  who  pre 
ceded  him  in  the  office.  He  entered  upon  his 
duties  with  a  distinct  and  definite  purpose,  to  be 
carried  into  effect  by  the  use  of  specific  means  to 
an  end.  A  study  of  the  diplomatic  history  of  the 
United  States  will  convince  any  candid  mind 
that  the  policy  of  every  Secretary  of  State  before 
Blaine  may  be  truly  described  as  a  waiting  policy. 
It  was  so  almost  as  a  necessary  consequence  of 
the  voluntary  isolation  of  the  country.  Foreign 
enterprise  was  unknown  to  our  diplomacy.  The 
State  department  took  up,  discussed,  and  settled 
the  questions  brought  before  it,  as  they  arose, 
whether  the  matter  were  a  grievance  of  the  gov 
ernment,  or  a  claim  against  it,  a  boundary  dis- 


242  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

pute,  or  a  proposition  looking  toward  improved 
commercial  relations.  Every  such  question  was 
dealt  with  individually,  in  accordance  with  the 
well-established  and  traditional  policy.  Unless 
a  situation  developed  which  required  the  gov 
ernment  to  assert  its  rights  as  against  some 
other  government  which  it  held  to  be  encroach 
ing  upon  them,  there  was  almost  nothing  of 
self-assertion  and  initiative  upon  the  part  of  the 
United  States.  Even  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  the 
one  distinctive  principle  of  American  diplomacy, 
which  may  be  cited  as  an  exception  to  the  fore 
going  statements,  was  originally  almost  as  much 
the  act  of  Great  Britain  as  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  subsequent  extensions  of  that  doctrine 
have  come  about  accidentally,  in  dealing  with 
situations  created  by  others  than  Americans. 
The  explanation  of  the  absence  of  general  ini 
tiative  on  the  part  of  Secretaries  of  State  from 
Jefferson  to  Evarts  —  a  roll  of  great  men  —  is 
not  that  they  lacked  power,  energy,  and  boldness, 
or  breadth  of  conception,  or  patriotism.  The 
country  of  set  purpose  chose  to  hold  itself  aloof 
from  world-politics,  engaged  in  warmly-worded 
diplomatic  controversies  only  when  its  interests 
were  directly  at  stake,  suppressed  its  opinion 
upon  the  internal  and  international  difficulties  of 
other  nations  save  only  when  it  observed  a  people 
endeavoring  to  overthrow  an  "  effete  monarchy." 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  243 

That  was  a  wise  and  proper  policy  —  for  the 
times  —  of  non-interference  and  non-participa 
tion  in  the  intrigues  and  disputes  of  the  Old 
World.  But  in  Mr.  Elaine's  opinion  the  time  had 
come  when  the  logic  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
should  be  enforced  by  the  adoption  of  an  Ameri 
can  continental  system.  From  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Garfield  administration  he  undertook, 
with  the  President's  full  sanction,  to  carry  out  the 
plan  which  he  had  conceived  on  a  grand  scale. 
There  were  two  general  principles  underlying  his 
policy.  The  first,  desirable  in  itself  and  necessary 
to  the  application  of  the  other,  was  that  wars 
between  the  independent  countries  of  the  two 
Americas  must  be  made  to  cease.  The  other  was 
that,  as  Providence  had  made  of  these  countries 
neighbors  in  a  peculiar  sense,  they  should  be 
mutually  helpful  to  one  another  in  trade  and 
commerce.  It  was  an  essential  part  of  the  scheme 
that  the  United  States,  the  leader  in  wealth, 
power,  international  standing,  and  governmental 
stability,  should  be  the  friend  and  adviser  of  all 
the  rest,  that  it  should  ever  be  ready  to  arbitrate 
between  any  two  American  countries,  but  never 
to  intervene  forcibly  to  compose  their  quarrel.  By 
making  itself,  under  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  an 
effective  protector  of  all  the  countries  against 
European  attack,  and  by  the  great  moral  forces 
of  precept  and  example  an  agent  of  universal 


244  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

peace  on  the  two  continents,  this  country  would 
win  the  cordial  good  will  of  all  the  governments 
and  their  people.  By  natural  consequence  it 
would  thus  prepare  the  way  for  a  vast  extension 
of  trade,  which  would  be  all  the  greater  when 
internal  and  external  peace  should  take  the  place 
of  the  traditional  turbulence  and  disorder  of  the 
Spanish-American  republics. 

The  Secretary  was  to  have  a  fuller  opportunity 
to  carry  this  policy  into  effect  than  he  had  in 
1881,  but  he  entered  upon  it  without  any  appre 
hension  of  the  obstacles  which  the  death  of  the 
President  would  create.  He  found  a  war  in  pro 
gress  between  Chile  on  the  one  side  and  Peru  ami 
Bolivia  on  the  other,  which  ended  shortly  after 
the  beginning  of  the  administration  in  a  com 
plete  victory  for  Chile.  He  undertook  to  mitigate 
the  hardship  of  the  conditions  of  peace  imposed 
by  the  victor.  There  was  imminent  danger  of  an 
outbreak  of  war  between  Mexico  and  Guate 
mala.  As  early  as  the  middle  of  June,  1881, 
Blaine  was  urging  the  government  of  Mexico  "  to 
avert  a  conflict  with  Guatemala,  by  diplomatic 
means  or,  these  failing,  by  arbitration."  There 
was  a  long-standing  boundary  dispute  between 
Chile  and  Argentina.  Mr.  Blaine  took  an  early 
opportunity  to  impress  upon  the  ministers  to  the 
two  countries  the  wish  of  the  President  that  the 
question  be  submitted  to  arbitration.  Fortu- 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  245 

nately,  negotiations  to  that  end  were  almost  com 
pleted  before  Mr.  Elaine's  despatch  was  written, 
although  the  fact  was  not  known  in  Washington 
until  long  afterward. 

The  new  policy  involved  two  great  projects. 
The  French  company  organized  by  M.  de  Les- 
seps  was  preparing  to  construct  the  Panama 
Canal.  A  situation  of  peculiar  difficulty  was 
thereby  created.  Although  private  enterprise  and 
private  capital  alone  would  be  enlisted,  yet 
vested  interests  of  overwhelming  importance  to 
French  citizens  might,  and  almost  certainly 
would,  at  some  time  in  the  future,  bring  about 
conditions  that  would  involve  the  government  of 
France  in  a  collision  with  the  government  of 
Colombia.  In  that  event  the  principles  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  might  be  invoked  to  protect 
Colombia  against  an  invasion  and  a  permanent 
occupation  of  its  territory,  and  thus  endanger 
the  relations  with  France  itself.  There  was  a 
treaty,  made  in  1846,  between  the  United  States 
and  New  Grenada,  now  Colombia,  which  gave 
the  United  States  important  rights.  Among  them 
was  that  of  free  transit  over  the  isthmus  of  Pan 
ama,  and  by  implication  the  right  to  secure  freedomx 
of  transit  by  the  use  of  force  when  imperilled  by 
the  lawlessness  of  Colombian  citizens.  But  there 
was  also  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain,  Jby  the  terms  of 


246  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

which  the  two  countries  united  in  a  guaranty  of 
the  neutrality  of  any  canal  that  might  be  cut 
through  the  isthmus.  For  a  variety  of  reasons 
this  treaty  complicated  the  situation,  and  Elaine 
lost  no  time  in  undertaking  to  secure  a  modifica 
tion  which  would  leave  the  United  States  free 
to  deal  with  the  isthmian  question  untrammelled 
by  foreign  engagements.  He  wrote  a  powerful 
despatch  on  the  subject,  to  be  submitted  to  the 
British  Foreign  Secretary,  which,  if  his  tenure 
of  office  had  been  longer,  he  would  have  fol 
lowed  up;  and  perhaps  he  would  have  brought 
about  negotiations  for  the  abrogation  of  the 
treaty.  He  was  savagely  criticised  for  stirring  up 
this  question,  and  was  accused  of  taking  a  course 
that  would  imbroil  this  country  with  Great 
Britain..  But  the  present  generation,  which  has 
seen  his  undertaking  brought  to  successful  ac 
complishment  by  Secretary  Hay,  knows  that  his 
effort  was  wise,  even  necessary. 

The  grandest  and  most  comprehensive  mea 
sure  in  this  general  policy  was  an  assemblage  of 
representatives  of  all  the  independent  govern 
ments  of  the  western  hemisphere  for  the  express 
purpose  of  ensuring  permanent  peace,  and  of 
promoting  enterprises  that  would  bind  all  the 
countries  together  in  friendship.  It  was  a  more 
far-reaching  scheme  than  Henry  Clay's  Panama 
congress,  because  the  lapse  of  more  than  half  a 


IN  GARFIELD'S  CABINET  247 

century  had  indicated  clearly  the  evils  to  be 
cured,  and  because  the  danger  of  foreign  aggres 
sion  had  ceased  and  left  the  way  open  for  the 
adoption  of  measures  that  could  not  have  been 
deemed  even  possible  in  the  time  of  the  second 
Adams. 

President  Garfield  had  already  given  his  ap 
proval  of  the  plan  to  summon  a  Pan-American 
Congress,  when  he  received  the  assassin's  bullet. 
Mr.  Elaine's  despatch  to  Mr.  Lowell,  the  min 
ister  to  England,  opening  the  question  of  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  was  dated  June  24,  1881, 
a  week  before  that  day  of  calalnity.  Conse 
quently  both  these  acts  may  be  regarded  as  acts 
of  the  Garfield  administration.  The  death  of  the 
President  and  the  succession  of  Mr.  Arthur 
changed  the  entire  situation.  Mr.  Blaine  had, 
and  could  have  had,  no  expectation  of  retaining 
his  portfolio  under  the  new  regime.  Three  days  _ 
after  the  death  of  Garfield,  September  22,  her 
tendered  his  resignation,  as  is  usuaHrrstTclfcases. 
President  Arthur  requested  all  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet  to  remain  in  office  until  the  regular 
meeting  of  Congress  in  December.  On  Octo 
ber  13,  Blaine  again  offered  to  resign;  he  was 
again  asked  to  hold  his  portfolio  until  December, 
and  he  did  so. 

President  Arthur  seemed  to  be  in  full  accord 
with  Mr.  Blaine's  plans  and  purposes.     Ineffi- 


248  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

ciency  or  something  worse  on  the  part  of  the 
diplomatic  representatives  of  the  government  in 
Chile  and  Peru  made  their  efforts  to  bring  about 
peace  between  these  countries  on  reasonable 
terms  quite  futile.  Mr.  Blaine  proposed  to  send 
a  special  mission  to  South  America  to  deal  with 
that  matter  only.  The  President  agreed  to  the 
plan.  The  person  chosen  to  head  the  mission 
was  Mr.  William  H.  Trescott,  a  diplomatist  of 
experience  and  good  judgment,  and  with  him 
was  associated  Mr.  Walker  Blaine,  the  eldest  son 
of  the  Secretary,  whom  President  Garfield,  on 
the  morning  after  his  inauguration,  had  ap 
pointed  Third  Assistant  Secretary  of  State,  in 
which  capacity  he  practically  occupied  the  posi 
tion  of  private  secretary  to  his  father.  The  two 
gentlemen  started  on  their  journey  southward 
at  the  beginning  of  December. 

The  President  acceded  also  to  Mr.  Elaine's 
proposition  that  the  American  countries  should 
be  invited  to  meet  in  general  conference,  and  on 
the  29th  of  November  an  invitation  was  sent  to 
all  those  countries  except  the  three  which  had  not 
yet  come  to  terms,  to  send  representatives  to 
Washington,  to  meet  on  November  24, 1882.  The 
invitation  was  sent  in  the  name  of  the  President, 
and  the  purpose  of  the  Congress  was  declared  to 
be  that  of  "considering  and  discussing  the 
methods  of  preventing  war  between  the  nations 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  249 

of  America."  The  President  desired,  wrote  Mr. 
Blaine,  "  that  the  attention  of  the  Congress  shall 
be  strictly  confined  to  this  one  great  object ;  that 
its  sole  aim  shall  be  to  seek  a  way  of  permanently 
averting  the  horrors  of  cruel  and  bloody  combat 
between  countries,  oftenest  of  one  blood  and 
speech,  or  the  even  worse  calamity  of  internal 
commotion  and  civil  strife;  that  it  shall  consider 
the  burdensome  and  far-reaching  consequences  of 
such  struggles,  the  legacies  of  exhausted  finances, 
of  oppressive  debt,  of  onerous  taxation,  of  ruined 
cities,  of  paralyzed  industries,  of  devastated  fields, 
of  ruthless  conscription,  of  the  slaughter  of  men, 
of  the  grief  of  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  of 
embittered  resentments  that  long  survive  those 
who  provoked  them  and  heavily  afflict  the  inno 
cent  generations  that  come  after." 

Mr.  Blaine  took  especial  pains  in  advance  to 
disabuse  the  invited  nations  of  the  idea  that  the 
United  States  was  to  prejudge  the  issues  to  be 
presented  to  the  Congress,  or  that  it  would  ap 
pear  "  as,  in  any  sense,  the  protector  of  its  neigh 
bors  or  the  predestined  and  necessary  arbiter  of 
their  disputes."  The  country  was  to  enter  into 
the  deliberations  of  the  Congress  "on  the  same 
footing  as  the  other  powers  represented,"  with 
no  intention  of  asserting  its  own  power,  "  but  as 
a  single  member  among  many  coordinate  and  co 
equal  states."  The  time  for  the  meeting  of  the 


250  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Congress  was  purposely  set  at  a  day  so  distant 
that  there  would  be  a  good  prospect  that  peace 
would  be  wholly  restored  between  the  countries 
still  nominally  at  war;  and  meantime,  in  view  of 
the  circumstances,  the  invitation  to  those  coun 
tries  was  withheld. 

The  invitation  was  dated  November  29,  1881. 
A  fortnight  later,  on  December  12,  the  President 
nominated  Senator  Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen, 
of  New  Jersey,  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  and  on 
the  19th  Mr.  Elaine  retired  from  the  office.  For 
the  first  time  since  the  4th  of  March,  1863,  he  was 
not  in  public  life.  He  went  into  retirement  with 
the  best  of  feeling  toward  the  President  and 
toward  his  successor.  He  had  set  in  motion  a 
great  enterprise,  and  although  he  was  not  to  have 
the  satisfaction  of  carrying  it  through,  the  initia 
tive  was  his,  and  if  the  project  succeeded  he 
could  felicitate  himself  on  having  done  a  bene 
ficent  work  for  his  country,  for  all  the  peoples 
of  the  two  Americas,  and  for  mankind.  He  was 
in  high  spirits,  and  enjoyed  the  freedom  from 
public  cares.  His  hope  that  his  policy  was  to 
be  continued  was  strengthened  by  Freling- 
huysen's  voluntary  assurance  that  he  desired 
Elaine's  son  Walker  to  remain  in  the  public 
service.  But  Frelinghuysen  was  a  Secretary  of 
State  of  the  type  of  those  who  had  preceded 
Elaine.  He  was  able,  patriotic,  and  conserv- 


IN  GARFIELD'S   CABINET  251 

ative.  He  was  not  disposed  to  pursue  a  general 
policy  such  as  had  been  planned  for  him.  It  is 
not  suggested  that  anything  of  personal  feeling 
or  of  jealousy  entered  into  the  case.  Mr.  Arthur 
also  was  conservative.  It  is  not  quite  easy  to  see 
why  the  President,  having  approved  Elaine's  pro 
ject  of  sending  a  mission  to  South  America,  and 
his  grand  scheme  of  a  Congress  of  American  re 
publics,  should  have  reversed  the  policy  in  both 
matters,  or  should  have  agreed  to  a  reversal  if 
suggested  by  his  new  Secretary.  But  reversed 
the  policy  was,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  most 
annoying  and  even  humiliating  to  Mr.  Blaine. 
True,  there  was  an  outburst  of  ill-tempered  criti 
cism  of  Elaine's  action.  A  malicious  insinuation 
was  spread  abroad  that  his  mission  to  Chile  and 
Peru  covered  a  scheme  for  money-making  in 
certain  guano-beds  in  the  territory  which  Chile 
proposed  to  take  from  its  conquered  enemy. 
That  matter  was  investigated,  and  the  absolute 
baselessness  of  the  accusation  was  abundantly 
proved.  The  idea  was  industriously  circulated  by 
newspapers  always  hostile  to  Blaine,  that  his 
policy  was  meddlesome,  sensational,  dangerous,- 
that  he  was  taking  steps  that  would  involve  the 
country  in  war,  or  at  least  in  complications  not 
compatible  with  the  traditional  policy  against 
"entangling  alliances."  He  was  blamed,  as  has 
been  remarked  already,  for  reopening  the  ques- 


252  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

tion  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  and  stirring 
up  bad  blood  between  this  country  and  Great 
Britain.  But  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  these  attacks 
could  have  had  any  influence  with  the  President, 
who  was  far  from  being  sympathetic  toward  the 
particular  wing  of  the  Republican  party  with 
which  the  assault  upon  Mr.  Blaine  originated. 
He  belonged  to  the  "second  section"  of  the 
party,  and  abhorred  the  third  section  —  a  senti 
ment  which  was  reciprocated.  The  summary  of 
the  discarded  policy,  which  has  been  given  for 
the  most  part  in  the  words  of  the  official  de 
spatches,  will  show  how  absurd  was  the  clamor 
that  was  raised  against  it.  The  key- word  'of  the 
whole  plan  was  Peace.  Unless  it  can  be  main 
tained  that  a  meeting  of  statesmen  summoned 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  making  peace  perpetual, 
by  devising  a  scheme  of  general  arbitration,  is  in 
itself  a  disturbance  of  peace  and  provocative  of 
war,  the  criticism  of  Blaine's  great  measure  is 
unjust.  Yet  practically  that  position  was  taken 
by  the  new  administration. 

Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  in  the  name  of  the  Presi 
dent,  practically  withdrew  the  invitation  on  Jan 
uary  9,  1882,  six  weeks  after  it  was  sent  out,  when 
some  of  the  governments  invited  had  already  sig 
nified  their  acceptance  of  it.  The  Secretary  of 
State  wrote  that  the  President  wished  "  hereafter 
to  determine  whether  it  will  conduce  to  the  general 


IN    GARFIELD'S    CABINET  253 

peace,  which  he  would  cherish  and  promote,  for 
this  government  to  enter  into  negotiations  and 
consultation  for  the  promotion  of  peace  with  se 
lected  friendly  nationalities,  without  extending 
the  line  of  confidence  to  other  people  with  whom 
the  United  States  is  on  equally  friendly  terms.  If 
such  partial  confidence  would  create  jealousy 
and  ill  will,  peace,  the  object  sought  by  such  con 
sultation,  w.ould  not  be  promoted."  Mr.  Blaine, 
on  the  3d  of  February,  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
President,  in  which  he  dealt  sharply  with  the  sug 
gestion  that  it  was  necessary  for  the  United  States 
to  secure  the  approval  of  European  powers  for 
any  plan  this  government  might  form  to  secure 
peace  on  the  American  continents,  or  that  there 
was  any  reason  to  apprehend  that  they  would  be 
jealous  or  hostile  if  they  were  not  admitted  to  the 
conference.  Nor  could  they  be  moved  by  ill  will, 
"  unless  indeed  it  be  the  interest  of  the  European 
powers  that  the  American  nations  should  at  in 
tervals  fall  into  war  and  bring  reproach  on  re 
publican  institutions." 

"Impudent"  was  the  adjective  which  the 
carping  enemies  of  Mr.  Blaine  applied  to  this 
letter.  They  fancied  him  posing  as  the  political 
legatee  of  Garfield,  declared  that  his  public  ca 
reer  was  ended,  and  congratulated  the  country 
that  it  had  been  delivered  from  a  bellicose  and 
swaggering  Secretary.  Certainly  his  position  at 


254  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

that  time  was  not  promising,  for  none  of  his  friends 
could  come  out  openly  in  defence  of  his  policy 
without  to  that  extent  deserting  the  administra 
tion.  Blaine  himself  would  not  have  wished 
them  to  do  that,  great  as  was  his  exasperation. 
Indeed,  at  that  time  foreign  questions  interested 
the  people  but  mildly.  The  President  waited 
until  April,  and  then  sent  a  message  to  Congress 
transmitting  a  copy  of  Elaine's  circular  invita 
tion,  and  asking  the  opinion  of  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  as  to  the  expediency 
of  holding  the  proposed  Congress  of  nations. 
He  probably  expected  no  response  to  his  request, 
at  any  rate  he  received  none,  and  the  invitation 
was  subsequently  formally  withdrawn. 

Not  less  humiliating  to  Mr.  Blaine,  although 
far  less  important  than  the  reversal  of  his  policy 
just  mentioned,  was  the  course  pursued  with 
reference  to  the  special  mission  of  Trescott 
and  Walker  Blaine.  On  the  24th  of  January, 
1882,  the  House  of  Representatives  passed  a 
resolution  asking  for  the  correspondence  be 
tween  the  representatives  of  the  United  States 
and  the  governments  of  Chile  and  Peru  relative 
to  the  negotiation  of  peace  between  the  South 
American  republics.  Instead  of  replying  that  it 
was  not  compatible  with  the  public  interest  to 
communicate  the  despatches,  the  Secretary  of 
State  sent  them  all  to  the  House  and  they  were  at 


IN    GARFIELD'S    CABINET  255 

once  published.  The  despatches  included  even 
the  instructions  under  which  Messrs.  Trescott 
and  Blaine  were  acting.  The  cable  carried  them 
immediately  to  the  government  of  Chile.  Tres 
cott  had  arranged  a  meeting  to  take  place  on 
the  31st  of  January  with  Senor  Balmaceda,  the 
Chilean  Secretary  of  State,  at  which  Walker 
Blaine  was  to  be  present  and  to  deliver  the  in 
vitation  to  the  Peace  Congress.  When  the  three 
gentlemen  met  and  Trescott  explained  the  object 
of  Elaine's  presence,  Balmaceda  exclaimed,  "  It 
is  useless.  Your  government  has  withdrawn  the 
invitation."  Trescott's  account  of  the  interview  l 
proceeds :  — 

"Seeing,  I  suppose,  an  expression  of  aston 
ishment  which  I  did  not  pretend  to  conceal,  he 
added,  'Your  own  instructions  have  been 
changed.  Your  instructions  from  Mr.  Blaine 
have  been  published,  and  others  are  on  their 
way  to  you  modifying  your  original  instructions 
in  very  important  particulars.  The  whole  ques 
tion  about  Calderon  [the  Calderon  government 
of  Peru]  is  out  of  the  way  and  you  are  told  to 
be  entirely  neutral.' " 

So  it  was.  The  envoys  of  the  United  States 
received  the  first  intimation  that  their  instruc 
tions  were  modified,  and  learned  the  nature  of 

1  Foreign  Relations,  2d  Sess.  57th  Congress,  Mr.  Trescott 
to  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  p.  67. 


256  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

the  modification,  from  one  of  the  parties  with 
whom  they  were  to  negotiate.  No  means  could 
have  been  devised  better  calculated  than  this 
to  render  the  mission  futile.  Mr.  Trescott  after 
ward  expressed  the  opinion  that  under  his  ori 
ginal  instructions  he  would  have  succeeded  in 
bringing  about  a  peace  treaty,  speedily,  and 
on  better  terms  for  the  conquered  countries, 
than  were  the  terms  of  the  treaty  which  was 
ultimately  made.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  upon 
the  weakness  and  vacillation  of  the  State  de 
partment,  or  upon  the  loss  of  national  prestige 
that  followed  inevitably. 

In  February,  1882,  Mr.  Elaine  made  his  last 
public  appearance  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  the  scene  of  his  longest  service 
and  of  his  most  brilliant  triumphs.  He  had  been 
invited  to  deliver  a  eulogy  upon  President  Gar- 
field.  At  first  he  declined  the  duty,  in  the  belief 
that  his  motive  in  accepting  it  would  be  mis 
understood,  certainly  misrepresented.  But  the 
committee  of  the  House  would  not  accept  his 
declination,  and  at  last  he  consented.  He  spent 
a  great  deal  of  time  upon  the  preparation  of  the 
eulogy,  revised  it  with  the  utmost  care,  and  asked 
for  the  judgment  of  many  of  his  friends  upon 
phrases  and  passages  before  its  form  was  finally 
determined.  It  was  delivered  before  an  im 
mense  concourse  of  eminent  men  on  the  27th 


IN    GARFIELD'S   CABINET  257 

of  February,  1882.  In  literary  style,  in  dignity 
of  tone,  in  keenness  of  analytical  insight  into 
the  character  of  his  subject,  above  all  in  that 
subtile  quality  of  tender  sympathy  which  touches 
the  hearts  of  men,  the  eulogy  upon  Garfield  is 
not  excelled  by  any  similar  production,  and  will 
always  be  a  classic.  What  more  tender  and 
felicitously  worded  passage  can  be  cited  than 
that  with  which  he  closed  ? 

"  Gently,  silently,  the  love  of  a  great  people 
bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed-for  healing 
of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to  die  as  God  should  will, 
within  sight  of  its  heaving  billows,  within  sound 
of  its  manifold  voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face 
tenderly  lifted  to  the  cooling  breeze,  he  looked 
out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  changing  won 
ders;  on  its  far  sails  whitening  in  the  morning 
light;  on  its  restless  waves  rolling  shoreward 
to  break  and  die  beneath  the  noonday  sun;  on 
the  red  clouds  of  evening,  arching  low  to  the 
horizon;  on  the  serene  and  shining  pathway  of 
the  stars.  Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read 
a  mystic  meaning  which  only  the  rapt  and  part 
ing  soul  may  know.  Let  us  believe  that  in  the 
silence  of  the  receding  world  he  heard  the  great 
waves  breaking  on  a  farther  shore,  and  felt 
already  upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the 
eternal  morning." 


IX 

CANDIDATE   FOR   THE   PRESIDENCY 

WHETHER  or  not  Mr.  Elaine's  public  career  was 
ended,  it  was  interrupted.  But  he  could  not  be 
idle,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to  new  things 
with  zest.  He  had  already  begun  the  erection  of 
a  large  house  for  his  own  occupation,  fronting  on 
one  of  the  beautiful  open  spaces  in  Washington, 
and  spent  much  time  in  watching  and  oversee 
ing  the  work.  There  were  many  propositions  as 
to  his  future  course  which  he  had  to  consider. 
His  old  constituency  in  Maine  wished  him  to 
resume  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives ; 
but,  with  gratitude  to  those  who  made  the  sug 
gestion,  he  declined  to  reenter  public  life  by  that 
avenue.  He  was  urged  to  prepare  and  deliver 
lectures,  but  the  suggestion  was  not  attractive  to 
him.  Publishers  sought  him  with  plans  for  book;s 
which  he  was  to  write.  Work  of  that  sort  was  to 
his  taste,  and  after  hesitating  some  time  between 
several  schemes  which  he  considered,  he  deter 
mined  upon  a  work  combining  political  history, 
politics,  and  personal  reminiscence.  The  result 
was  his  "Twenty  Years  of  Congress."  Although 
the  second  volume  of  this  work  was  not  published 


CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    259 

until  1886,  nearly  or  quite  four  years  after  he 
began  the  first  volume,  it  will  be  most  convenient 
not  to  recur  to  the  subject,  but  to  speak  of  it  in 
this  place. 

The  work  covers  the  period  between  1861  and 
1881,  but  almost  one  half  of  the  first  volume  - 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  pages  —  is 
occupied  with  a  comprehensive  and  masterly 
review  of  the  events  which  led  up  to  the  forma 
tion  of  the  Republican  party,  the  election  of  Lin 
coln,  and  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States. 
The  rest  of  the  work  consists  of  statements  of  the 
great  issues  that  arose  during  the  Civil  War  and 
the  period  of  Reconstruction,  the  management  of 
those  questions  by  the  party  in  power,  the  atti 
tude  of  the  opposition,  and  the  part  taken  in  the 
struggles  by  the  chief  actors  in  political  life  at  the 
time.  The  whole  is  interspersed  with  brief  char 
acterization  of  the  prominent  men  of  the  epoch 
under  treatment,  most  of  whom  Mr.  Blaine 
knew  personally,  all  of  whom  he  knew  by  their 
acts  and  words.  He  not  only  entered  upon  the 
work  con  amore,  but  continued  to  the  end  to 
keep  his  interest  in  the  task.  His  labor  upon  it 
was  interrupted  by  the  campaign  of  1884,  but 
after  his  defeat  for  the  presidency  he  resumed  it 
with  unabated  zeal. 

His  method  was  characteristic  of  him.  He  had 
a  wonderful  memory,  which  was  not  specialized 


260  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

but  extended  over  the  whole  range  of  his  know 
ledge.  Faces,  names,  dates,  statistics,  political 
events  and  the  actors  in  them,  in  short  every 
thing  that  pertained  to  the  history  of  his  country, 
was  always  at  his  tongue's  end.  Gail  Hamilton 
narrates1  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  visit  of 
Robert  C.  Winthrop  to  Washington  to  be  present 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Washington  monument, 
Mr.  Elaine  invited  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Hannibal 
Hamlin  to  luncheon.  In  the  course  of  the  con 
versation  the  question  came  up  who  were  the 
senators  from  the  several  States  in  the  Congress 
of  1849-51,  when  Mr.  Winthrop  was  a  member 
of  the  Senate.  Blaine  repeated  the  whole  list 
without  a  mistake. 

Nevertheless  he  subjected  the  intimations  of 
such  an  accurate  memory  to  rigid  verification, 
much  of  which  was  performed  under  his  direc 
tion  by  his  secretary,  Mr.  Sherman.  He  never 
acquired  the  art  of  dictating  with  facility,  but 
wrote  the  manuscript  with  his  own  hand.  Then 
a  fair  copy  of  it  was  made  by  another,  —  for  the 
type-writer  was  not  then  in  general  use,  —  and 
Mr.  Blaine  afterward  revised  his  work  with  pains 
taking  industry.  Moreover,  when  the  proofs  came 
to  him  from  the  printing-office,  he  corrected  and 
revised  again  and  again,  to  the  despair  of  the 
publisher,  since  the  corrections  added  greatly 
1  Life  of  Blaine,  p.  571. 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    261 

to  the  cost  of  production  and  delayed  the  publi 
cation.  Some  parts  of  the  second  volume,  pas 
sages  not  requiring  the  most  careful  thought  in 
preparation,  were  dictated  to  an  amanuensis,  but 
like  all  the  rest  were  afterward  edited  most  care 
fully. 

The  work  is  eminently  worthy  of  the  author. 
No  other  book  covering  any  period  of  American 
political  history  is  so  full  and  comprehensive  or 
displays  such  intimate  knowledge  of  men  and 
events.  The  only  work  that  can  be  compared 
with  it  is  Benton's  "  Thirty  Years'  View,"  and 
that  is  inferior  to  Elaine's  "Twenty  Years" 
because  the  author  of  it  was  too  violent  a  parti 
san  to  see  the  other  side  of  any  question,  and 
too  egotistical  to  yield  more  than  half  the  space 
to  others  than  himself.  Elaine,  on  the  other 
hand,  rarely  refers  to  himself  as  taking  any  part 
in  public  affairs,  quotes  none  of  his  own  speeches, 
and  refrains  from  paying  off  old  scores.  Instead 
of  representing  his  party  and  himself  as  having 
been  always  in  the  right,  he  writes  with  the 
utmost  frankness  in  criticism  of  acts  in  which 
he  had  participated,  and  of  votes  to  which  he 
had  responded  with  an  "ay."  He  is  at  his  best 
in  his  characterization  of  statesmen  of  his  own 
time  and  of  an  earlier  era.  Particularly  in  deal 
ing  with  those  from  whom  he  had  differed  po 
litically  his  language  is  respectful,  appreciative, 


262  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

and  sweet.  He  had  occasion  many  times  to  refer 
to  Mr.  Conkling,  but  he  did  not  write  a  word  to 
intimate  that  he  had  ever  been  on  other  than 
amicable  terms  with  that  gentleman,  nor  a  word 
that  might  not  have  been  penned  by  an  admirer. 
Two  exceptions  must  be  noted,  for  upon  two  of 
his  contemporaries  he  did  pour  vials  of  scorn. 
His  provocation  was  great  in  both  cases,  but  it 
is  a  pity  that  his  self-restraint  gave  way  even 
once. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Mr.  Elaine's  narra 
tive  of  events  contains  the  essential  facts  and 
omits  the  unimportant,  that  his  analysis  of  con 
ditions  is  keen  and  philosophical  and  calmly 
judicial,  and  that  the  whole  work  is  dignified 
in  tone  and  in  good  temper.  There  is  not  a 
wrong-minded  sentence  in  it,  not  a  sentence 
which  is  offensively  partisan,  or  malevolent, 
or  derogatory  to  the  motives  of  others.  In  all 
these  respects  it  was  characteristic  of  the  author, 
who  never  cherished  animosities,  or  took  un 
charitable  views  of  the  conduct  even  of  those 
who  opposed  him.  Finally,  the  "  Twenty  Years  " 
is  written  in  a  most  lucid  and  felicitous  style, 
and  with  a  literary  polish  that  was  habitual  in 
all  his  speeches  and  writings. 

The  interval  between  Mr.  Elaine's  retirement 
from  the  State  department  and  the  beginning  of 
the  stirring  campaign  of  1884  was  to  him  a 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    263 

period  of  unusual  enjoyment  and  satisfaction. 
In  a  certain  coterie  of  journalism  he  was  looked 
upon  as  such  a  complete  embodiment  of  the 
spirit  of  evil  that,  even  in  his  retirement,  he  was 
watched  lest  haply  some  malign  plot  against 
the  happiness  and  welfare  of  his  country  should 
be  hatched  by  him  and  carried  into  execution 
before  the  vigilant  sentinels  could  warn  the 
nation  of  its  peril.  They  fancied  that  behind  the 
screen  of  apparent  absorption  in  literary  work 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  home  he  was  en 
gaged  in  constant  intrigue  to  restore  himself  to 
his  former  position  of  leadership.  In  fact,  he 
was  employed  in  a  most  congenial  literary  task, 
which  promised  and  eventually  gave  him  a  rich 
pecuniary  reward.  It  was  work  at  home  which 
enabled  him  to  be  constantly  with  those  whom 
he  loved  best,  his  devoted  wife  and  his  dearly 
loved  children,  —  two  sons  and  a  daughter,  and 
then,  after  a  long  interval,  two  other  daughters 
and  a  son.  The  oldest  son,  Walker,  who  resigned 
his  position  in  the  State  department  after  his 
return  from  South  America,  had  been  appointed 
assistant  counsel  for  the  distribution  of  the 
Geneva  Award.  The  second  son,  Emmons,  had 
begun  an  apprenticeship  to  the  railway  business, 
and  resided  near  at  hand  in  Baltimore.  The 
oldest  daughter,  Alice,  was  happily  married  to 
Colonel  Coppinger  of  the  regular  army.  The 


264  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

three  younger  children,  Margaret,  Harriet,  and 
James,  were  growing  up,  healthy  and  happy, 
companions  of  their  father  as  the  elder  children 
had  been.  But  Margaret  was  at  this  time  mak 
ing  the  tour  of  Europe.  The  family  was  never 
complete  without  Miss  Abby  Dodge,  "  Gail 
Hamilton,"  who  made  her  home  with  the 
Blaines  in  Washington  every  winter,  from  the 
early  days  of  Mr.  Elaine's  speakership  until  his 
death.  Her  brilliant  and  sparkling  wit,  that 
dropped  from  her  tongue  as  felicitously  as  it 
flowed  from  her  pen,  made  her  one  of  the  most 
attractive  personages  in  the  social  life  of  Wash 
ington.  She  was  always  a  helpful  entertainer  at 
the  table  and  in  the  drawing-room  of  Mrs. 
Blaine,  her  own  cousin,  and  was  the  dauntless 
champion  of  Mr.  Blaine.  In  the  summer,  when 
the  Washington  house  was  closed,  the  family, 
the  secretaries,  and  servants  returned  to  the  old 
homestead  at  Augusta,  where  they  led  a  joyous 
country  life,  and  Miss  Dodge  went  to  her  own 
home  in  Hamilton,  Massachusetts. 

As  the  time  for  president-making  drew  near, 
the  leaders  of  the  three  sections  of  the  Republi 
can  party  began  laying  their  plans.  Mr.  Arthur 
had  made  a  safe  President.  Unlike  the  two 
earlier  vice-presidents  who  had  succeeded  to  the 
position  on  the  death  of  the  elected  President,  he 
had  not  betrayed  his  party.  His  policy  was  al- 


CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    265 

ways  cautious,  and  his  administration  was  not 
marked  by  any  great  measure,  any  stirring  politi 
cal  contest,  or  any  grave  scandal.  Consequently 
he  was  a  far  more  formidable  candidate  for  the 
nomination  than  seemed  probable  at  the  be 
ginning  of  his  service  as  President.  The  "  third 
section,"  the  independents,  represented  roughly 
by  those  who  opposed  General  Grant  in  1872, 
who  supported  Bristow  in  1876,  and  who  were 
against  both  Grant  and  Blaine  in  1880,  were 
not  now  seriously  hostile  to  Arthur,  but  they 
eventually  concentrated  their  forces  in  favor  of 
Senator  Edmunds  of  Vermont. 

What  were  the  members  of  the  "  first  section  " 
to  do,  —  those  who  had  supported  Blaine  in  two 
conventions  ?  Mr.  Blaine  himself  made  no  secret 
of  his  opinion  that  the  administration  wasted 
large  opportunities,  and  that  in  its  foreign  policy 
it  was  weak  and  nerveless.  But  he  followed  his 
invariable  practice  and  said  nothing  to  encour 
age  the  idea  that  he  desired  again  to  be  a  candi 
date  before  the  convention.  Indeed,  as  the  time 
for  the  meeting  of  the  convention  drew  near,  he 
became  positively  disinclined  to  hav<e  his  name 
used. 

In  the  winter  of  1883-84  there  was  a  notable 
gathering  in  New  York  of  friends  and  supporters 
of  Blaine,  —  Whitelaw  Reid,  William  Walter 
Phelps,  Charles  Emory  Smith,  and  others.  The 


266  „  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

expediency  of  starting  a  movement  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Elaine  was  warmly  discussed,  —  not  as  to 
the  movement  itself  but  as  to  the  appropriate 
time  for  it.  Mr.  Smith  finally  declared  to  those 
who  were  present  that,  whatever  they  might  de 
cide,  he  intended  to  go  home  and  place  the  name 
of  Mr.  Blaine  as  a  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency  at  the  head  of  the  columns  of  the  Phila 
delphia  Press  at  once.  He  did  so.  The  move 
ment  was  started,  and  the  idea  was  quickly  taken 
up  with  enthusiasm  in  every  part  of  the  country 
where  the  Republicans  hoped  for  success  at  the 
polls. 

To  the  period  of  the  preliminary  canvass 
belongs  the  story  of  a  personal  reconciliation 
between  General  Grant  and  Mr.  Blaine.  Refer 
ence  has  been  made  already  to  the  fact  that  rela 
tions  between  them  were  broken  off  some  time 
before.  Mr.  Elaine's  own  feelings  were  ex 
pressed  by  him  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Elkins  in 
November,  1881.  Having  asked  Mr.  Elkins  to 
disabuse  the  mind  of  another  person  as  to  his, 
Elaine's,  agency  in  procuring  the  publication  of 
a  certain  newspaper  article,  he  added,  "I  do 
not  care  to  make  the  slightest  correction  in 
General  Grant's  mind,  for  he  is  in  the  habit  of 
speaking  of  me  in  a  manner  that  renders  me 
entirely  careless  of  what  he  may  think."  In  1883 
some  of  the  friends  of  both  men  undertook  to 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    267 

restore  the  friendship  between  them.  With  refer 
ence  to  this  effort  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  to  Mr. 
Elkins :  "  I  note  what  you  say  in  regard  to  Gen 
eral  Grant.  Do  not  in  any  talk  put  me  in  the  at 
titude  of  soliciting  or  actively  desiring  any  re 
conciliation  with  him.  He  broke  with  me,  not  I 
with  him.  You  see  I  cannot  ask  Grant  to  forgive 
me  for  wThat  he  alone  has  done.  But,  as  you  well 
know,  I  have  no  malice  or  grudge  against  him, 
never  injured  him  in  word  or  act,  never  said  a 
thing  against  him  that  I  would  not  say  to  him ; 
have  never  spoken  an  abusive  nor  disrespectful 
word  of  him.  I  have  therefore  nothing  to  explain, 
nothing  to  retract,  nothing  to  apologize  for.  My 
difference  with  him  was  on  a  public  issue  on 
which  I  had  a  right  to  my  own  course.  I  leave 
it  all  to  you."  A  month  later,  August  20,  he 
wrote  another  letter  to  Elkins,  who  had  evidently 
reported  to  him  the  progress  of  the  negotiation. 
He  expressed  himself  as  "deeply  interested  in 
your  letter."  "  You  will  always  find  it  difficult  to 
reconcile  a  difference  that  is  all  on  one  side.  I 
never  gave  General  Grant  the  slightest  cause  of 
personal  offence,  but  he  assumed  that  I  did,  and 
it  is  easier  to  remove  ten  facts  than  one  assump 
tion.  .  .  .  My  dignity  and  self  respect  are  as 
safe  in  your  hands  as  in  mine,  and  that  is  the 
only  point  I  wish  guarded." 

It  is  pleasant  to  learn  that  the  effort  to  bring 


2G8  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

about  personal  harmony  was  successful.  When 
calamity  overtook  the  general  in  the  following 
year,  Mr.  Blaine  wrote  again  to  his  friend  El- 
kins,  "  I  am  profoundly  sorry  for  the  Grant  dis 
aster,  for  disaster  it  really  is.  It  is  a  great  shame 
that  a  man  who  has  done  so  much  for  his  country 
should  be  subjected  to  reverses  so  humiliating 
and  to  trials  so  embarrassing.  Congress  should 
relieve  the  General  by  putting  him  promptly  on 
the  retired  list,  with  full  pay  of  the  rank  from 
which  he  was  taken  sixteen  years  ago." 

The  proposition  to  make  Mr.  Blaine  the  Re 
publican  candidate  for  President,  in  1884,  found 
him  in  quite  a  different  mood  from  that  of 
1876  and  1880.  Perhaps  he  was  not  less  ambi 
tious  of  the  great  distinction  than  he  had  been, 
but  the  two  defeats  in  convention  had  made  him 
/Distrustful  of  himself  in  respect  of  his  ability  to 
be  elected.  He  had  serious  doubts  if  any  Re 
publican  could  be  successful.  Moreover,  he  was 
fully  aware  of  the  opposition  to  himself  on  the 
part  of  a  great  many  members  of  his  own  party. 
Apparently  he  was  not  so  sure  as  he  was  in  1880 
that  he  could  make  himself  acceptable  to  the 
independents.  A  passage  from  his  letter  of  De 
cember  10,  1880,  to  General  Garfield,  omitted 
from  the  quotation  on  page  234,  is  significant. 
Having  assured  the  President  elect  that  the  in 
dependents  "  can  be  hitched  to  your  administra- 


CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    269 

tion  with  ease,"  he  added,  "  I  could  handle  them 
myself  without  trouble."  Now  he  had  doubts, 
which  proved  to  be  too  well  grounded.  Nor,  it 
seems,  was  he  sure  of  the  cordial  support  of  the 
Grant  section,  and  of  the  "machine"  in  New 
York  and  other  states. 

Nevertheless  the  movement  in  his  favor  gained 
impetus  in  almost  every  part  of  the  country 
where  the  Republican  party  was  strong.  The 
surface  indications  were  that  the  hostility  to  him 
within  the  party  had  greatly  abated,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  enthusiasm  over  his  candidacy  had 
increased.  Mr.  Elaine  began  to  say  that  he  was 
afraid  he  should  be  nominated,  and  to  those  who 
showed  surprise  at  such  a  statement  he  explained 
his  reasons.  Of  course  he  made  no  public  utter 
ance  to  this  effect,  but  to  his  family,  who  had  un 
bounded  faith  in  him  and  in  his  fortunes,  and  to 
his  most  intimate  friends  and  associates,  he  was 
outspoken.  Indeed,  as  he  afterward  confessed, 
he  had  all  the  time  a  presentiment  that  the  can 
vass  was  to  bring  him  disaster.  But  he  could  not, 
perhaps  did  not  try,  to  persuade  himself  to  for 
bid  the  use  of  his  name;  and  if  he  had  done  so 
his  friends  would  not  have  conformed  to  his 
wish. 

But  upon  one  point  he  was  firm  and  unshaken. 
On  the  8th  of  May,  1884,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Elkins, 
who  was  the  volunteer  campaign  manager  for 


270  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

him,  "My  first,  last,  constant  injunction  is, 
spend  no  money.  I  never  want  it  [the  nomination] 
unless  it  be  the  unbought,  unbiased  will  of  the 
nominating  power.  I  enjoin  this  upon  you  with 
special  emphasis."  Again,  on  May  30,  —  the 
convention  was  to  meet  on  June  3,  — he  wrote: 
"  I  wish  to  renew  my  request  that  you  will  not  in 
any  event,  by  direction  or  indirection,  engage  in 
the  purchase  of  votes.  I  do  not  wish  the  nomina 
tion  on  any  other  basis  than  that  which  has  made 
me  a  candidate,  the  unbiased,  unbought  judg 
ment  of  the  people.  This  is  not  merely  a  question 
of  conscience  and  principle  with  me,  but  has 
become  almost  a  superstition.  Nomination  pro 
cured  by  objectionable  means  would  not  merely 
be  unwelcome  to  me,  but  would  prove  disastrous. 
I  beg  therefore  that  you  will  accept  my  judg 
ment  on  this  point  as  absolute  and  conclusive, 
irreversible,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  degree 
of  temptation  or  the  specious  justification  which 
is  suggested  by  the  practice  of  our  opponents." 
It  was  doubtless  the  experience  of  1880,  when, 
as  in  the  approaching  canvass,  two  strong  can 
didates  not  unequally  matched  divided  between 
them  a  large  majority  of  the  delegates  to  the 
convention,  that  suggested  to  him  that  the  event 
of  1880  might  be  repeated,  and  that  a  "dark 
horse"  would  win.  At  all  events  the  attitude  of 
his  mind  toward  the  candidacy  which  seemed 


CANDIDATE   FOR   THE  PRESIDENCY    271 

already  more  nearly  certain  than  ever  before, 
which  led  him  on  the  25th  of  May  to  write  a 
remarkable  letter  to  General  Sherman,  is  most 
difficult  to  describe  in  words.  The  letter  itself 
was  marked  "Confidential.  Strictly  and  abso 
lutely  so."  General  Sherman  himself  published 
it  in  an  article  in  the  "  North  American  Review  " 
for  December,  1888,  with  the  remark  that  he 
did  not  violate  confidence  in  doing  so.  It  bears 
evidence  in  abundance  that  the  writer  intended 
it  for  the  eye  of  General  Sherman  alone.  It  was 
as  follows :  — 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL,  —  This  letter  requires 
no  answer.  After  reading  it  carefully  file  it  away 
in  your  most  secret  drawer,  or  give  it  to  the 
flames.1 

At  the  approaching  convention  in  Chicago 
it  is  more  than  possible  —  it  is  indeed  not  im 
probable  —  that  you  may  be  nominated  for  the 
presidency.  If  so  you  must  stand  your  hand,  ac 
cept  the  responsibility,  and  assume  the  duties  of 
the  place  to  which  you  will  surely  be  chosen  if 
a  candidate.  You  must  not  look  upon  it  as  the 
work  of  the  politicians.  If  it  comes  to  you  it  will 
come  as  the  ground-swell  of  popular  demand  — 
and  you  can  no  more  refuse  than  you  could  have 
refused  to  obey  an  order  when  you  were  a  lieu- 

1  "Burn  this  letter." 


272  JAMES   G.    BLAINE 

tenant  in  the  army.  If  it  comes  to  you  at  all  it 
will  come  as  a  call  of  patriotism.  It  would,  in 
such  an  event,  injure  your  great  fame  as  much 
to  decline  it  as  it  would  for  you  to  seek  it. 
Your  historic  record,  full  as  it  is,  would  be  ren 
dered  still  more  glorious  by  such  an  adminis 
tration  as  you  would  be  able  to  give  the  coun 
try.  Do  not  say  a  word  in  advance  of  the 
convention,  no  matter  who  may  ask  you.  You 
are  with  your  friends  who  will  jealously  guard 
your  honor. 

Do  not  answer  this. 

Nevertheless  General  Sherman  did  answer  it 
in  a  most  characteristic  letter.  He  promised  to 
construe  the  letter  as  absolutely  confidential, 
even  as  regarded  the  members  of  his  own  family, 
but  he  combatted  Mr.  Elaine's  position  at  every 
point.  One  sentence  will  show  the  vigor  and 
emphasis  with  which  he  declined  the  career.  "  I 
owe  no  man  a  cent,  have  no  expensive  habits  or 
tastes,  envy  no  man  his  wealth  or  power,  have  no 
complications  or  indirect  liabilities,  and  would 
account  myself  a  fool,  a  madman,  an  ass,  to 
embark  anew,  at  sixty-five  years  of  age,  in  a 
career  that  may  at  any  moment  become  tempest- 
tossed  by  the  perfidy,  the  defalcation,  the  dis 
honesty  or  neglect  of  any  one  of  a  hundred 
thousand  subordinates  utterly  unknown  to  the 


f<^    or  THE 
I    \JNJVERS 
. 
CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    273 

President  of  the  United  States,  not  to  say  the 
eternal  worriment  by  a  vast  host  of  inpecunious 
friends  and  old  military  subordinates." 

But  our  concern  is  with  the  question,  what 
prompted  Mr.  Blaine  to  write  the  letter.  It  is 
certain  that  the  idea  that  General  Sherman 
might  be  nominated  was  in  the  minds  of  others 
at  the  time.  General  Henderson,  on  taking  the 
chair  as  permanent  president  of  the  Republican 
national  convention,  referred  to  it  openly.  "  And 
now,  gentlemen,"  he  said,  in  conclusion,  "if 
because  of  personal  disagreements  among  us, 
or  the  emergencies  of  the  occasion,  another 
name  is  sought,  there  yet  remains  that  grand 
old  hero  of  Kenesaw  Mountain  and  Atlanta." 
The  simplest  answer  to  the  question  as  to  Mr. 
Elaine's  motive  is  the  true  one.  On  every  ac 
count  he  approved  the  selection  of  General 
Sherman  as  the  candidate.  Sherman  was  his 
close  personal  friend,  a  wise  man  who  would 
make  a  good  President,  and  "available"  to  an 
extreme  degree.  Blaine  himself  had  serious  mis 
givings  as  to  his  own  ability  to  be  elected  if 
nominated,  looked  with  something  of  dread  on 
the  prospect  of  a  canvass  wherein  he  was  to  be 
the  leader,  and  was  even  at  that  time  prescribing 
the  conditions  upon  which  alone  he  would  con 
sent  to  accept  the  leadership.  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  he  would  have  welcomed  the  nomi- 


274  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

nation  of  General  Sherman  as  a  relief  from  a 
situation  almost  as  repellent  as  it  was  attractive, 
a  position  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle,  most 
honorable  in  itself,  yet  involving  exposure  to  all 
the  missiles  of  the  enemy. 

Mr.  Elaine's  misgivings  were  only  too  well 
justified,  although  neither  he  nor  any  one  else 
could  have  foreseen  the  character  and  the  power 
of  the  several  influences  that  combined  to  defeat 
him.  There  were  few  indications  before  the  con 
vention,  and  almost  no  open  threats,  of  a  revolt 
within  the  party  if  he  should  be  the  candidate,  — 
that  is  to  say,  no  threats  by  persons  usually  cred 
ited  with  much  influence  in  political  affairs.  An 
examination  of  the  official  verbatim  report  of  the 
proceedings  justifies  the  statement  that  not  one 
word  was  uttered  during  the  sessions  of  the  con 
vention  that  implied  hostility  to  Mr.  Blaine,  or  in 
derogation  of  his  character,  or  premonitory  of  a 
bolt  if  he  should  be  nominated. 

The  convention  met  at  Chicago  on  the  3d  of 
June.  At  the  outset  there  was  a  contest  over  the 
choice  of  a  temporary  presiding  officer.  Mr. 
Elaine's  friends  ranged  themselves  generally  on 
one  side  and  those  of  all  the  other  candidates  on 
the  other  side  ;  and  although  the  vote  was  not 
strictly  a  test  it  was  regarded  as  a  rough  indica 
tion  of  what  might  be  expected  when  the  first 
vote  for  a  candidate  was  taken.  The  nominee 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    275 

supported  by  the  Elaine  contingent  was  defeated 
by  a  majority  of  only  forty. 

No  unusual  incident  marked  the  proceedings. 
The  report  of  the  committee  on  credentials  was 
accepted  unanimously  without  debate,  and  the 
platform  also  was  adopted  with  equal  unanimity. 
The  several  candidates  for  the  nomination  were 
proposed  in  eloquent  speeches,  and  the  nomina 
tions  were  seconded  in  speeches  admirable  in 
temper.  There  was  the  usual  noisy  and  prolonged 
enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  the  candi 
dates   as  their  names   were  uttered.   Naturally 
the  demonstration  was  most  obstreperous  when 
the  name  of  Mr.  Elaine  was  pronounced  by  the 
blind  orator  of  Ohio,  Judge  William  H.  West, 
but    Mr.    Arthur,    Senator   Edmunds,    General 
Logan,  John  Sherman,  and  General  Hawley  had 
many  ardent  advocates  and  were  vigorously  ap 
plauded  by  delegates  who  did  not  intend  to  vote 
for  them.  The  roll  was  called  four  times.  On  the 
first  trial  Mr.  Elaine  had  334  J  votes  of  the  411 
necessary  to  nominate  him.    He  had  some  votes 
from  all  but  five  of  the  States  and  from  five  of 
the  nine  territories.    Four  of  the  states  that  cast 
no  votes  for  him  were  New  England  States,  and  a 
fifth,  Massachusetts,  afforded  him  but  a  solitary 
supporter.    The  Elaine  vote  increased  to  349  on 
the  second  roll-call,  to  375  on  the  third,  and  to 
541  on  the  fourth,  when  he  had  130  more  than 


27G  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

were  necessary  for  a  nomination.  Even  on  this 
conclusive  roll-call  Connecticut  continued  to 
vote  for  Hawley,  and  Vermont  and  a  majority 
of  the  Massachusetts  delegates  for  Edmunds. 
Outside  of  Maine  Mr.  Elaine  had  only  thirteen 
New  England  votes,  and  there  were  fifty-one 
votes  from  the  five  states  against  him. 

A  scene  of  almost  unexampled  enthusiasm 
ensued  upon  the  announcement  of  Mr.  Elaine's 
nomination,  and  a  motion  to  make  the  choice 
unanimous  was  carried,  amid  renewed  cheering, 
no  one  objecting.  Yet  there  was  a  group  of  men 
in  the  convention  who  did  not  accept  the  result 
cheerfully  if  they  accepted  it  at  all.  They  were 
not  ready  to  bolt  at  once.  They  had  not  decided 
what  course  they  would  pursue.  In  the  end 
most  of  them  gave  a  more  or  less  active  support 
to  the  ticket,  but  some  of  the  delegates,  after 
reflecting  upon  the  matter,  joined  in  the  revolt 
which  constituted  one  of  the  chief  features  of  the 
canvass  that  ensued. 

Mr.  Elaine  had  retired  to  his  Augusta  home 
before  the  convention,  and  there  received  intelli 
gence  of  the  proceedings.  His  neighbors,  all  his 
friends,  were  excited  and  enthusiastic  over  the 
result.  A  special  train  was  made  up  at  Bangor 
and  quickly  crowded  with  men,  who  journeyed 
to  Augusta  to  congratulate  the  candidate  in 
person.  The  California  delegation  in  the  con- 


CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    277 

vention,  one  and  all  his  supporters  at  every  roll- 
call,  did  better,  for  they  travelled  the  whole  dis 
tance  from  Chicago  to  Augusta,  nearly  fifteen 
hundred  miles,  for  the  same  purpose.  From  one 
end  of  the  country  to  the  other  Republicans  and 
Republican  newspapers  expressed  the  liveliest 
satisfaction  that  the  choice  had  fallen  upon  a  real 
political  leader  whom  they  had  learned  to  love 
for  his  personal  traits  and  to  admire  for  his  bril 
liant  and  dashing  qualities  as  a  public  man. 
"  Like  a  plumed  knight,"  a  phrase  employed  by 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll  in  presenting  his  name  to  the 
convention  of  1876,  suggested  a  party  emblem 
for  the  campaign,  which  was  used  by  friends  and 
foes,  for  the  cartoonists  of  the  opposition  de 
lighted  to  make  the  plumed  helmet  a  means  of 
ridicule.  But  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Republican 
party  were  proud  of  their  candidate,  and  mani 
fested  their  devotion  to  him  and  their  confidence 
in  him  in  ways  that  showed  that  he  had  a  stronger 
hold  upon  their  affection  than  any  former  candi 
date  of  the  party  could  boast. 

The  campaign  was  opened  in  the  usual  way. 
Blaine  clubs  were  organized,  ratification  meet 
ings  were  held,  and  an  aggressive  canvass  was 
planned.  A  committee  of  the  convention  desig 
nated  for  the  purpose,  with  General  Henderson, 
the  president  of  the  convention,  at  its  head,  visited 
Augusta  and  communicated  verbally  to  the  can- 


278  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

didate  the  fact  of  his  nomination,  and  listened 
to  a  brief  response  by  Mr.  Blaine,  expressing  his 
sense  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  him,  and  ac 
cepting  the  nomination.  This  ceremony,  which 
took  place  on  the  21st  of  June,  was  followed  three 
weeks  later  by  a  formal  letter  of  acceptance.  By 
far  the  largest  consideration  was  given  in  this 
paper  to  the  question  of  the  tariff,  to  the  increase 
of  trade  and  wealth  under  the  protective  system, 
to  the  importance  to  the  farmer  of  a  home  market 
for  his  produce,  and  to  the  benefit  which  labor 
derived  from  a  policy  which  enabled  employers 
to  pay  good  wages.  A  strong  plea  was  made  for 
the  cultivation  of  more  intimate  relations  with 
the  countries  of  the  Western  Hemisphere,  as  well 
as  for  the  promotion  of  measures  to  ensure  peace 
between  them  by  means  of  arbitration.  Two  or 
three  hopeful  paragraphs  dealt  with  the  Southern 
question:  the  rapidly  disappearing  mutual  an 
tagonism  between  North  and  South;  the  pros 
pect  of  industrial  development  in  the  Southern 
States;  the  hostility  to  Southern  prosperity 
which  was  chargeable  upon  the  Democratic  party 
in  its  "effort  to  unite  the  Southern  States  upon 
issues  that  grow  out  of  memories  of  the  war." 

Mr.  Blaine  was  emphatic  in  his  commendation 
of  measures  to  take  the  civil  service  out  of  poli 
tics.  "  Impartiality  in  the  mode  of  appointment 
to  be  based  on  qualification,  and  security  of 


CANDIDATE   FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    279 

tenure  to  be  based  on  faithful  discharge  of  duty, 
are  the  two  ends  to  be  accomplished."  He  as 
serted  that  he  had  always  favored  both  these 
objects,  and  made  a  special  point  that  consuls 
of  the  United  States,  who  "should  be  commer 
cial  sentinels,  encircling  the  globe  with  watch 
fulness  for  their  country's  interests,"  should  be 
chosen  upon  this  system.  A  word  against  poly 
gamy;  an  expression  in  favor  of  bimetallism, 
upon  a  basis  of  relative  values  of  gold  and  silver 
to  be  fixed  by  international  agreement;  a  brief 
argument  in  favor  of  a  liberal  policy  in  respect  of 
the  public  land;  an  approval  of  every  measure 
calculated  to  restore  the  ocean-carrying  trade; 
and  a  vigorous  assertion  of  the  importance  of 
honest  elections,  brought  the  letter  of  acceptance 
to  a  close.  It  is  a  terse  and  powerful  setting  forth 
of  the  principles  then  and  always  held  by  the 
Republican  party,  put  in  such  a  way  as  to  show 
that  the  writer,  now  the  leader  of  that  party,  was 
ready  to  take  an  advanced  position  in  every 
effort  to  carry  those  principles  into  effect. 

Meantime  an  opposition  to  Mr.  Blaine  of  an  ex 
traordinary  character  was  in  process  of  organiza 
tion.  Some  influential  Republican  newspapers, 
some  most  respected  and  honorable  men,  life 
long  members  of  the  party,  declared  publicly, 
with  unfeigned  reluctance,  that  they  could  not 
and  would  not  support  the  ticket,  if  Governor 


280  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

Cleveland,  of  New  York,  in  whom  they  had  con 
fidence,  should  be  the  nominee  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  Their  hope  was  realized  early  in 
July,  and  from  that  time  they  worked  with  energy 
and  zeal  to  defeat  Blaine  and  to  elect  Cleveland. 

The  basis  of  their  action  was  a  contention  that 
Mr.  Blaine  was  an  unfit  person  to  be  chosen 
President  of  the  United  States,  or  even  to  be 
tolerated  in  public  life.  They  held  that  the  accu 
sations  against  him  in  connection  with  the  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  transactions,  as  well  as 
other  charges  affecting  his  personal  integrity, 
were  proved.  They  maintained  also  that  his 
course  when  Secretary  of  State  stamped  him  as 
an  adventurous  and  unsafe  statesman,  who 
would  surely  embroil  his  country  in  a  foreign  war 
if  he  had  the  opportunity.  In  short,  they  con 
demned  him  as  a  man  and  as  a  public  man. 

The  opposition  born  of  this  feeling  existed, 
no  doubt,  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  It  ex 
isted  as  an  organized  movement  in  a  few  of  the 
eastern  states  only,  it  was  strong  nowhere  save 
in  Massachusetts,  and  the  headquarters  of  the 
revolt  was  Boston.  A  Committee  of  One  Hun 
dred  was  constituted  to  undertake  an  active 
propaganda  with  the  sole  purpose  of  defeating 
Blaine  in  November.  Pledges  of  opposition  to 
him  were  circulated  in  Boston  and  the  sur 
rounding  cities  and  received  thousands  of  sig- 


CANDIDATE   FOR   THE    PRESIDENCY    281 

natures.  Pamphlets  were  prepared,  printed, 
and  circulated  in  large  numbers,  in  which  the 
story  of  the  "  Mulligan  letters "  was  told  in  a 
form  to  represent  the  case  against  Elaine  in 
the  most  unfavorable  light.  Any  one  who  had 
only  these  publications  to  guide  him  in  forming 
an  opinion  would  have  been  justified  in  regard 
ing  the  Republican  candidate  as  a  person  dis 
honest,  untruthful,  unfaithful  to  his  friends, 
tricky,  greedy  of  money,  unscrupulous  in  pri 
vate  and  public  life,  —  in  short  a  pretentious, 
worthless,  and  altogether  detestable  character. 

It  is  not  intended  here  to  imply  that  all  those 
who  prepared  and  fathered  these  attacks  upon 
Mr.  Blaine  were  insincere  or  malicious.  It  is  a 
charitable  view,  but  one  not  easy  to  hold,  that 
none  of  them  allowed  a  feeling  of  personal  an 
tipathy  to  influence  their  judgment  until  they 
could  see  nothing  honorable  or  admirable  in 
him.  Some  of  the  "independent"  newspapers 
in  particular  so  abounded  in  sneer,  innuendo, 
and  vituperation,  that  it  is  difficult  to  ascribe 
their  course  wholly  to  a  high  sense  of  public 
duty.  But  in  the  main  the  leaders  of  the  group 
of  "Mugwumps,"  as  they  proudly  styled  them 
selves,  were  men  of  too  high  character  and  re 
putation  to  be  actuated  by  other  than  public 
motives.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  they 
incited  or  approved  the  coarser  assaults  upon 


282  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Mr:  Elaine,  or  that  they  entertained  so  mean 
an  opinion  of  him  as  was  professed  by  those 
who  seem  to  have  been  —  whether  they  were 
so  or  not  —  malignant.  They  were  the  "  re 
formers  by  profession,  the  unco'  good/*  as  they 
were  described  by  Mr.  Blaine  himself  in  the 
already  twice  quoted  letter  to  Garfield,  and  men 
of  the  best  intentions.  It  is  a  singular  character 
istic  of  those  who  constitute  this  class  that  they 
are  much  too  ready  to  judge  men  of  their  own 
party  by  the  worst  their  enemies  say  of  them, 
too  ready  to  overlook  or  to  discredit  accusations 
equally  bad  or  worse  brought  against  politicians 
of  the  other  party  with  which  they  are  tempora 
rily  in  alliance. 

The  Mugwump  leaders  were  themselves  men 
of  so  high  character  that  they  carried  with  them 
in  their  political  excursion  a  throng  of  other 
Republicans  as  capable,  perhaps,  as  they  of  form 
ing  an  opinion  upon  the  matter  in  hand,  but  hav 
ing  too  little  independence  to  stand  against  the 
onrush  of  the  leaders.  It  became  the  fashion 
able  thing  in  and  around  Boston  to  be  a  Mug 
wump;  and  the  former  Republican,  in  the  clubs 
and  in  certain  social  circles,  who  did  not  join  in 
the  movement  was  looked  upon  as  morally  ob 
tuse  if  not  completely  lacking  in  moral  principle. 

Although  the  origin  of  the  Mugwump  move 
ment  is  involved  in  no  mystery,  its  persistence 


CANDIDATE    FOR   THE   PRESIDENCY    283 

requires  explanation.  It  was  primarily  a  revolt 
against  the  candidacy  of  one  man,  and  was  to 
end  with  the  defeat  of  that  man.  Those  who  en 
gaged  in  it  professed  that  it  was  pride  in  their 
party  and  devotion  to  its  principles  that  led  them 
on  to  a  course  of  action  which  they  regarded  as 
a  defence  of  party  and  principles  that  would  be 
imperilled  were  they  entrusted  to  an  unworthy 
leader.  Their  purpose  was  accomplished,  yet  few 
of  those  who  were  prominent  in  the  movement 
returned  to  their  old  party  allegiance.  Many  of 
them  became  permanently  attached  to  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  but  many  more  have  continued  ever 
since  to  call  themselves  Mugwumps,  still  usually 
supporting  Democratic  candidates,  but  occa 
sionally  vindicating  their  profession  of  independ 
ence  in  politics  by  voting  for  a  Republican.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  revolt  some  of  the  more  par 
tisan  of  the  Republican  newspapers  insisted  that 
the  movement  was  one  in  favor  of  free  trade,  and 
it  is  true  that  the  most  earnest  and  energetic 
Mugwumps  were  low-tariff  men;  but  it  would 
be  grossly  unjust  to  men  of  such  character  to 
suppose  them  capable  of  attempting  to  deceive 
by  representing  moral  scruples  to  be  the  motive 
of  acts  to  which  they  were  really  impelled  merely 
by  dislike  of  Mr.  Elaine  's  tariff  views.  It  is  never 
theless  also  true  that  the  journalists  and  public 
men  who  then  permanently  withdrew  from  the 


284  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

Republican  party  were  and  are,  perhaps  without 
an  exception,  free  traders.  Attachment  to  the 
fortunes  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  particularly  after  he 
took  a  position  on  the  tariff  question  satisfactory 
to  them,  and  increasing  devotion  to  the  protec 
tive  principle  on  the  part  of  the  Republicans, 
form  a  sufficient  explanation  of  their  political 
course.  By  far  the  largest  number  of  those  who 
at  first  followed  them  returned  long  ago  to  the 
Republican  party. 

Besides  the  complication  caused  by  the  Mug 
wump  movement  there  were  two  other  impor 
tant  causes  of  uncertainty  and  insecurity  in  the 
Republican  canvass.  No  one  knew  or  could  as 
certain  whether  Mr.  Conkling  would  use  what 
influence  he  still  possessed,  to  help  or  to  hurt  the 
ticket.  Moreover  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler 
was  a  candidate  for  President,  with  nominations 
by  the  "  anti-monopoly "  party,  and  also  by  the 
National,  or  Greenback  party.  He  had  a  large 
personal  following,  and  was  certain  to  draw 
many  voters  to  his  support.  His  political  career 
in  Massachusetts  showed  that  he  could  attract 
voters  of  a  certain  class  who  were  to  be  found  in 
both  parties  and  were  a  credit  to  neither.  It  was 
an  interesting  question  which  party  would  gain 
and  which  would  lose,  on  the  whole,  by  his  con 
tinuing  in  the  field  as  a  candidate.  Among  many 
letters  written  by  Mr.  Blaine  to  Mr.  Elkins  in  the 


CANDIDATE    FOR   THE    PRESIDENCY    285 

course  of  the  campaign,  is  the  following,  dated 
July  27,  in  which  the  uncertainties  in  New  York 
and  the  question  about  Butler  are  touched  upon : 

"  Can  Conkling  be  induced  to  speak  for  us  ? 
It  would  be  an  immense  thing  for  us.  How  can 
he  be  induced  to  do  it  ?  What  do  you  know  about 
Johnny  O'Brien  and  the  rest  of  Arthur's  friends  ? 
Are  they  playing  fair  ?  The  Butler  problem  is 
difficult.  It  is  difficult  to  tell  what  the  gains  and 
losses  would  be  by  his  staying  out  or  his  going  in. 
One  course  would  hurt  in  some  states  and  help 
in  others,  and  vice  versa.  The  whole  problem  is 
this,  viz:  if  Butler  runs  he  will  get  250,000  votes, 
more  or  less,  —  less,  probably.  If  he  does  not 
run  who  will  get  a  majority  of  those  votes  ?  I 
think  I  would,  and  hence  would  gain  by  his 
staying  out." 

The  importance  of  this  expression  of  opinion, 
aside  from  its  guess  as  to  the  effect  of  the  Butler 
candidacy,  lies  in  the  conclusive  proof  it  affords 
that  Butler's  course  was  not  regarded  as  helpful 
to  Mr.  Blaine,  and  that  he  did  not,  as  his  virulent 
enemies  charged,  promote  the  candidacy. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Republicans  built  not 
a  little  hope  upon  Mr.  Elaine's  popularity  among 
voters  of  Irish  blood.  It  was  a  popularity  that  was 
quite  unsolicited,  for  he  had  always  been  op 
posed  politically  to  the  party  to  which  most 
Irishmen  attach  themselves,  he  had  never  made 


286  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

an  appeal  addressed  to  Irishmen  in  any  state 
campaign  he  had  conducted  in  Maine,  and 
never  until  long  afterward  made  speeches  on  the 
wrongs  suffered  by  Ireland.  To  be  sure  he  was 
of  Irish  descent  on  both  sides  of  his  house,  but 
his  ancestors  came  from  the  north  of  Ireland, 
and  most  of  them  were  Presbyterians,  as  he  him 
self  was.  Yet  he  was  greatly  admired  by  hosts  of 
Irishmen;  and  Tammany  Hall,  in  New  York, 
was  opposed  to  Mr.  Cleveland  and  was  brought 
over  to  his  support  late  in  the  canvass.  A  great 
many  Irishmen  in  New  York  State  declared 
themselves  in  favor  of  Blaine. 

At  the  Maine  State  election  in  September  the 
Republican  candidate  received  twenty  thousand 
plurality,  far  more  than  the  average  during 
the  long  period  of  Republican  ascendancy.  But, 
contrary  to  the  usual  rule,  the  result  could  not 
be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  political  situa 
tion  in  the  country  as  a  whole.  It  was  merely  a 
proof  of  the  strong  hold  Mr.  Blaine  had  upon 
the  affection  of  the  people  of  Maine.  The 
Republican  managers  urgently  advised  their 
leader  to  make  a  speaking  tour  through  the 
West.  Ohio  and  West  Virginia  were  the  last 
states  to  abandon  the  practice  of  holding  their 
state  elections  in  October,  and  it  was  deemed 
good  policy  to  play  the  best  card  in  the  hand  of 
the  party  by  sending  Blaine  into  Ohio.  With 


CANDIDATE   FOR   THE   PRESIDENCY    287 

some  reluctance  he  acceded  to  the  plan,  and 
accordingly  left  Augusta  on  the  17th  of  Septem 
ber  and  did  not  return  to  his  home  until  the  day 
of  the  November  election. 

After  a  day  or  two  in  Boston,  where  he  was 
magnificently  received,  and  having  delivered  an 
address  at  Worcester,  he  proceeded  to  New  York, 
where  again,  as  well  as  in  Philadelphia,  to  which 
he  made  a  short  visit,  he  was  greeted  by  throngs 
of  enthusiastic  supporters.  The  brief  stay  in 
New  York  was  made  notable  by  his  receiving  a 
call  from  General  Grant,  with  whom  he  had  a 
pleasant  interview  that  lasted  more  than  an  hour. 
When  he  left  the  city  for  his  western  tour  his 
progress  through  New  York  State  was  a  continu 
ous  ovation.  At  every  stopping  place  there  was 
a  crowd  of  shouting  men,  and  to  each  gather 
ing  Mr.  Elaine  made  a  short  speech.  Upon 
reaching  Ohio,  he  began  a  stumping  canvass 
differing  from  those  in  which  he  had  previ 
ously  participated  only  in  the  number  and  en 
thusiasm  of  those  who  listened  to  him.  The 
•topics  upon  which  he  addressed  the  voters  were 
chiefly  the  tariff  and  the  danger  of  a  "solid 
South."  He  appreciated  most  keenly  the  ex 
treme  importance  of  the  Ohio  election,  as  numer 
ous  letters  to  Mr.  Elkins,  scrawled  hastily  on  any 
scrap  of  paper  that  came  to  hand,  abundantly 
prove.  The  National  Committee  was  urged  in 


288  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

almost  frantic  language  not  to  rely  too  much  on 
him  but  to  exert  itself  to  the  utmost  to  make 
sure  of  that  one  great  state.  He  breathed  more 
freely  when  Ohio  gave  its  verdict,  —  a  plurality 
of  eleven  thousand  for  the  Republican  candidate 
for  Secretary  of  State,  larger  pluralities  for  the 
other  state  officers,  and  a  gain  of  several  Repub 
lican  Congressmen. 

Mr.  Blaine  had  already  given  a  few  days  of 
his  time  to  West  Virginia.  On  the  15th  of  Octo 
ber  he  began  a  brief  campaign  in  Michigan, 
went  from  that  state  to  Indiana  for  a  week, 
passed  into  Illinois,  and  thence  returned  to  New 
York  City.  He  had  been  informed  some  time 
previous  to  his  homeward  journey  that  some 
most  influential  men,  many  of  them  possessors 
of  great  wealth,  planned  to  give  a  banquet  in 
his  honor.  Elaine's  judgment  was  most  decid 
edly  against  the  scheme.  In  several  letters  he 
declared  that  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  for  him 
to  accede  to  the  plan.  He  scented  disaster.  He 
believed  that  he  ought  by  all  means  to  avoid  New 
York.  He  was  right,  but  could  not  stand  out  • 
against  the  urgency  of  his  friends,  and  to  New 
York  he  went.  The  banquet  was  highly  success 
ful,  and  the  speeches  made  after  it,  to  Blaine 
and  by  him,  contained  nothing  to  which  the  most 
critical  could  take  exception.  But  the  mere  fact 
that  he  was  so  strongly  supported  by  the  repre- 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    289 

sentatives  of  capital  was  used  skilfully  against 
him  in  appeals  to  those  less  favored  by  fortune, 
and  no  doubt  worked  to  his  injury. 

But  a  still  more  untoward  incident  was  to 
mark  this  visit  to  New  York.  On  the  29th  of 
October  a  large  number  of  clergymen  assembled 
to  meet  Mr.  Blaine  and  assure  him  of  their  sup 
port.  Their  spokesman  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burch- 
ard,  who  made  a  brief  address  which  closed  with 
these  sentences:  "We  are  Republicans,  and 
don't  propose  to  leave  our  party  and  identify 
ourselves  with  the  party  whose  antecedents  have 
been  rum,  Romanism,  and  rebellion.  We  are 
loyal  to  our  flag,  we  are  loyal  to  you."  Mr. 
Blaine  apparently  did  not  notice  the  alliterative 
clause,  but  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  rebuke 
the  attempt  to  introduce  a  sectarian  issue  into 
the  canvass,  if  he  had  been  aware  of  it,  without 
giving  offence.  His  political  adversaries  at  once 
took  advantage  of  the  unfortunate  remark  to 
detach  from  his  support  all  whom  they  could 
persuade  that  the  election  of  Blaine  would  be 
a  blow  at  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  Some 
of  the  most  unscrupulous  of  his  opponents  repre 
sented  the  words  as  those  of  Blaine  himself.  It 
is  said  that  leaflets  ascribing  the  sentiment  to 
him  were  distributed  at  the  doors  of  Roman 
Catholic  churches  on  the  following  Sunday. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  heedless  remark 


290  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

caused  him  the  loss  of  more  than  enough  votes 
to  have  changed  the  result  in  New  York  and 
thus  to  have  elected  him  President. 

Mr.  Blaine  stopped  in  Boston  on  his  way  home, 
and  on  the  night  before  election  reviewed  an  im 
mense  and  enthusiastic  procession  of  torch  bear 
ers.  He  arrived  in  Augusta  in  time  to  cast  his  own 
vote,  and  returned  to  his  house  to  await  the  ver 
dict  of  the  people.  Time  and  again,  after  his 
great  canvass  in  the  West  closed,  he  was  assured 
in  the  most  confident  manner  that  his  election 
was  certain.  But  he  entertained  doubts  even 
then,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  express  them  to 
the,  friends  about  him. 

The  early  returns  from  most  of  the  states  were 
favorable,  but  those  from  New  York  indicated  a 
close  vote.  The  electors  of  that  state  were  not 
absolutely  essential  to  Republican  success. 
There  were  to  be  401  electors,  and  201  were 
necessary  for  a  choice.  The  Democrats  were  sure 
of  the  153  votes  of  the  "solid  South  ;"  the  Re 
publicans  could  count  upon  all  the  Northern 
States  except  Connecticut,  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  and  Indiana,  and  would  thus  have  182 
votes.  Mr.  Blaine  could  win  if  he  carried  New 
York  and  its  36  electors,  or  with  Indiana  and 
either  Connecticut  or  New  Jersey.  The  news 
from  New  York  was  discouraging,  and  Mr. 
Blaine  remarked  to  the  friends  assembled  in  his 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    291 

library  that  if  he  had  not  at  least  five  thousand 
plurality  in  New  York  he  would  be  cheated  out 
of  the  state.  Weary  with  his  long  campaign 
and  the  strain  of  the  election,  he  retired  early, 
and  slept  soundly,  leaving  his  secretary  and  his 
anxious  friends  to  receive  the  later  and  more 
decisive  returns.  When  he  came  down  the 
next  morning  he  received  calmly  the  intelli 
gence  that  he  was  probably  defeated,  and  said 
to  his  friends  that  they  were  much  less  recon 
ciled  to  the  result  than  he  was.  He  did  not 
care  half  so  much  for  himself,  he  assured 
them,  as  he  did  for  the  party  that  had  suffered 
defeat  under  his  leadership,  and  for  the  hosts 
of  his  friends  who  would  be  grievously  disap 
pointed. 

Although  all  four  of  the  "  doubtful "  Northern 
States  gave  their  electoral  votes  to  Mr.  Cleveland, 
the  result  in  all  was  unprecedentedly  close.  In 
diana  gave  him  a  plurality  of  6527  in  a  vote  but 
6000  short  of  half  a  million  for  all  the  candidates. 
In  New  Jersey  Cleveland's  plurality  was  4358; 
in  Connecticut,  1276;  in  New  York,  as  the  result 
was  finally  declared,  1149.  In  the  four  states 
Cleveland  had  1,003,141  votes;  Elaine,  989,831; 
and  the  Democratic  plurality  of  13,310,  in  a  total 
for  both  candidates  of  almost  two  million,  was 
but  little  more  than  a  half  of  one  per  cent.  New 
York  was  counted  for  Cleveland,  but  there  were 


292  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

then  and  are  now  few  Republicans  cognizant  of 
the  facts  who  doubt  that  a  plurality  of  votes 
was  actually  cast  in  that  state  for  Mr.  Blaine. 
It  was  openly  charged  at  the  time,  and  com 
monly  believed  by  Republicans,  although  Demo 
crats  warmly  denied  it,  that  in  many  precincts 
of  New  York  City  the  votes  for  Butler  were 
counted  for  Cleveland.  The  conviction,  a  few 
years  later,  of  the  unscrupulous  boss  of  a  town 
near  New  York,  on  a  charge  of  falsifying  election 
returns,  confirmed  in  their  opinion  those  who 
held  the  view  that  Blaine  was  really  elected. 
But  whether  it  was  true  or  false  that  the  returns 
were  manipulated  in  the  interest  of  the  Demo 
cratic  candidates,  there  was  no  way  to  prove  the 
accusation,  and  all  concerned  acquiesced  in  the 
result  as  it  was  officially  declared. 

Mr.  Blaine  shared  with  three  others  the  experi 
ence  of  missing  the  presidency  by  an  extremely 
narrow  margin.  Burr  was  tied  with  Jefferson  in 
the  electoral  vote  of  1801.  Clay  lost  the  vote  of 
New  York  and  the  election,  in  1844,  by  a  small 
plurality,  owing  to  the  defection  of  the  Free 
Soilers.  Tilden's  claim  to  the  office  was  defeated 
in  1877  by  the  judgment  of  the  Electoral  Com 
mission,  but  even  then  a  single  additional  elec 
toral  vote  would  have  given  him  a  majority. 

"The  whole  campaign,'*  wrote  Blaine  to  one 
of  his  most  intimate  friends,  a  month  or  two 


CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY    293 

after  the  election,  "  was  a  disaster  to  me  —  per 
sonally,  politically,  and  pecuniarily.  I  ought  to 
have  obeyed  what  was  really  my  strong  instinct 
against  running.  My  regrets  do  not  in  the  least 
take  the  form  of  mourning  over  defeat  in  the 
election,  but  over  my  blunder  in  ever  consent 
ing  to  run.  It  was  the  wrong  year  —  and  gave 
to  my  enemies  their  coveted  opportunity."  Once 
in  the  campaign,  Mr.  Elaine  had  bent  all  his  en 
ergies  and  had  given  all  his  time  and  large  con 
tributions  in  money  to  the  cause.  His  corre 
spondence  at  this  time  deals  much  with  money 
matters  and  with  arrangements  to  enable  him 
to  tide  over  a  temporary  embarrassment  until 
he  could  recover  himself.  In  one  letter  he  re 
marks  upon  the  reputation  his  political  enemies 
had  given  him  of  being  exceedingly  wealthy,  and 
of  the  contrast  his  actual  situation  formed  with 
that  reputation. 

Many  causes  combined  to  bring  about  Elaine's 
defeat,  which  was  so  narrow  that  but  for  any 
one  of  them  he  would  have  been  chosen  Presi 
dent.  The  Mugwump  defection  was  of  course 
the  chief  cause,  for  in  so  great  a  state  as  New 
York,  where  some  of  the  most  intense  oppo 
sition  of  this  sort  found  expression  in  influential 
publications,  there  must  have  been  many  times 
enough  Republicans  who  voted  for  Cleveland 
to  have  given  Elaine  the  electoral  vote  of  the 


294  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

state.  The  Prohibition  vote  may  also  be  men 
tioned,  but  that  is  a  feature  of  every  election, 
and  except  that  a  certain  number  of  Republicans 
who  could  not  bring  themselves  to  vote  the  Demo 
cratic  ticket  cast  their  ballots  for  St.  John,  the 
fact  that  this  particular  independent  ticket  was 
in  the  field  had  no  appreciable  effect  upon  the  re 
sult.  In  all  probability  Mr.  Elaine  was  right,  in 
a  letter  already  quoted,  in  the  opinion  that  the 
candidacy  of  Butler  drew  more  votes  from  him 
than  from  his  opponent.  It  did,  according  to 
affidavits  made  at  the  time,  enable  the  Tammany 
managers  to  count  for  Cleveland  ballots  actually 
given  to  Butler.  How  many  votes  were  so  counted 
could  not  be  ascertained,  but,  with  a  large  supply 
to  draw  upon,  a  number  exceeding  the  official 
plurality  of  Cleveland  is  not  a  high  estimate. 
Again,  the  success  of  the  "  rum,  Romanism,  and 
rebellion  "  phrase  in  turning  Irishmen  away  from 
Mr.  Blaine  was  obvious  at  once,  and  might 
surely  be  credited  with  turning  victory  into  de 
feat,  were  all  the  other  causes  of  the  result  to  be 
eliminated.1  Finally,  the  cool  and  non-committal 

1  Mr.  Blaine  himself  referred  to  the  causes  of  his  defeat  in 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Murat  Halstead,  dated  November  16,  1884. 
in  which  he  makes  an  amusing  reference  to  the  Burchard 
incident.  Mr.  Halstead  published  a  facsimile  of  the  letter 
in  an  article  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  January,  1896.  "I 
feel  quite  serene  over  the  result,"  he  .wrote.  "As  the  Lord 
sent  upon  us  an  Ass  in  the  shape  of  a  Preacher  and  a  rain- 


CANDIDATE   FOR   THE   PRESIDENCY     295 

attitude  of  Mr.  Conkling,  although  without  effect 
upon  a  vast  majority  of  Republicans  in  New 
York,  must  have  been  taken  by  the  most  ardent 
partisans  of  that  gentleman  as  an  indication  that 
his  apparent  indifference  masked  a  secret  wish 
for  the  defeat  of  his  old  antagonist.  An  "  inter 
view,"  published  in  December,  1884,  represented 
Mr.  Blaine  as  having  ascribed  his  defeat  to  Conk- 
ling  ;  but  aside  from  the  fact  that  an  "  interview  " 
in  a  newspaper,  particularly  an  interview  with 
Blaine,  needs  authentication  to  entitle  it  to  be 
lief,  we  have  seen  that  he  attributed  the  loss  of 
New  York  to  Mr.  Burchard's  indiscretion  and 
to  the  weather.  The  concluding  remark  in  the 
interview  may  nevertheless  have  been  spoken, 
since  Blaine  practically  said  the  same  thing  on 
other  occasions :  "  My  election  was  not  to  be ;  *' 
and  there  we  may  leave  it. 

storm  to  lessen  our  vote  in  New  York,  I  am  disposed  to  feel 
resigned  to  the  dispensation  of  defeat  which  flowed  directly 
from  those  agencies. 

"In  missing  a  great  honor  I  escaped  a  great  and  oppressive 
responsibility. 

"You  know  —  perhaps  better  than  any  one  —  how  much  I 
did  n't  want  the  nomination  —  but  perhaps  in  view  of  all 
things  I  have  not  made  a  loss  by  the  canvass.  At  least  I  try 
to  think  not  —  the  other  candidate  would  have  fared  hard  in 
Maine,  and  would  have  been  utterly  broken  in  Ohio." 


AGAIN    SECRETARY   OF   STATE 

THERE  was  consolation  in  defeat.  Friends  and 
intimate  associates"  poured  their  grief  into  Mr. 
Elaine's  ears.  Disappointed  supporters  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  in  thousands  of  letters  gave 
vent  to  their  feeling  of  indignation  at  the  treat 
ment  he  had  received,  and  at  the  vile  aspersions 
upon  his  character.  Eminent  men  in  politics  and 
in  the  professions  —  men  of  quite  as  keen  percep 
tion  and  of  quite  as  high  moral  tone  as  those 
who  assailed  him  —  wrote  to  assure  him  of  their 
unwavering  confidence  in  him.  Even  political 
opponents  of  high  standing  in  their  party,  who 
knew  the  man  and  knew  that  the  portrait  of  him 
drawn  by  his  virulent  enemies  was  not  and  could 
not  be  true,  were  among  those  who  testified  their 
personal  respect  and  friendship. 

Elaine  lost  no  time  in  useless  mourning  over 
the  result  of  the  election,  but  turned  again  to 
the  work  which  the  canvass  had  interrupted. 
He  resumed  and  finished  the  "  Twenty  Years  of 
Congress,"  and  then  made  a  collection  of  his  own 
speeches,  articles,  and  diplomatic  correspondence, 
under  the  title  of  "  Political  Discussions :  Legis- 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       297 

lative,  Diplomatic  and  Popular,"  which  was 
published  in  1887.  It  is  a  fresh  illustration  of  the 
extraordinary  persecution  to  which  he  was  sub 
jected  that  some  of  the  newspapers  most  violently 
opposed  to  him  sent  correspondents  to  Augusta 
to  spy  upon  him,  to  collect  gossip  from  slanderous 
tongues  or  to  invent  tales  injurious  to  him  and 
his  family.  For  the  detractors  did  not  spare  Mrs. 
Elaine  nor  the  sons.  Any  one  who  is  sufficiently 
curious  to  examine  the  files  of  the  several  New 
York  papers  for  the  issue  of  December  8,  1885, 
may  find  an  illustration  of  the  depth  to  which 
personal  journalism  can  go.  Undoubtedly  such 
assaults,  to  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  attach  a 
descriptive  adjective,  wounded  him  deeply,  but 
he  gave  no  sign  and  left  the  truth  to  right  him  in 
due  time. 

One  of  the  ways  in  which  the  representatives 
of  hostile  papers  had  discerned,  long  before,  that 
they  were  capable  of  causing  Mr.  Elaine  extreme 
annoyance,  was  by  representing  him  as  breaking 
down  or  as  already  broken  down  in  health.  They 
had  found  the  most  characteristic  weakness  in 
his  make-up.  From  early  manhood  he  was,  in 
respect  of  his  own  health,  "  notional."  Upon  the 
slightest  indisposition  he  took  to  his  bed  and  sum 
moned  a  physician.  He  was  apprehensive  to  an 
equal  degree  when  any  member  of  his  family  was 
ill.  It  gave  a  dash  to  his  spirits  whenever  any 


298  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

one  suggested  that  he  was  not  looking  well.  His 
intimates  did  not  have  many  opportunities  to 
amuse  themselves  at  his  expense,  but  they  did 
quietly  tell  among  themselves  stories  to  illustrate 
his  possession  of  at  least  one  very  human  weak 
ness.  On  his  great  tour  of  the  West  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1884  a  cinder  got  in  his  eye  on  a  rail 
way  trip  in  Ohio.  The  eye  pained  him,  probably 
not  more  than  is  usually  the  case,  and  as  he 
walked  the  floor  at  his  hotel,  he  called  to  one  of 
his  companions  and  directed  him  to  make  plans 
for  an  immediate  return  home.  To  Augusta? 
Yes,  he  was  afraid  he  should  lose  the  sight  of  that 
eye,  and  he  must  give  up  the  rest  of  his  stump 
ing  tour  and  put  himself  under  the  care  of  a 
skilful  surgeon.  There  was  a  hasty  consultation 
among  those  who  were  accompanying  Mr.  Elaine ; 
local  surgical  aid  was  called  in;  expostulation 
against  an  abandonment  of  the  campaign,  and 
relief  from  pain,  led  him  to  change  his  mind ;  and 
the  next  day  he  delivered  the  political  speech 
which  was  on  his  schedule  of  appointments. 

Among  the  hundreds  of  newspaper  clippings 
consulted  in  the  preparation  of  this  biography 
are  a  score  or  two  scattered  along  in  point  of  time 
from  1876  to  the  period  when  mortal  illness  had 
really  attacked  Mr.  Blaine,  in  which  he  is  repre 
sented  as  "a  very  sick  man,"  as  having  lost  his 
old-time  physical  vigor,  as  exhibiting  an  ominous 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       299 

pallor  of  countenance,  and  in  other  phrases 
intimating  or  saying  plainly  that  the  end  of  his 
life  could  not  be  distant.  Even  the  newspapers 
most  given  to  personalities  rarely  show  them 
selves  so  inconsiderate  as  to  publish  such  state 
ments  about  any  man.  It  was  cruelty  to  print 
them  about  Mr.  Elaine,  but  that  cruelty  was 
persistent  during  many  years. 

Only  two  events  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Blaine, 
aside  from  his  literary  work,  during  almost  three 
years  after  his  defeat  for  the  presidency,  need 
even  a  passing  reference.  In  1886  he  built  for 
himself  a  summer  residence  at  Bar  Harbor,  in 
a  beautiful  and  commanding  position  on  a  hill 
side,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  "Stanwood," 
doubly  appropriate,  because  it  was  the  maiden 
name  of  Mrs.  Blaine,  and  because  the  house 
stood  upon  land  long  owned  by  a  direct  descend 
ant  of  the  first  Stanwood  in  America,  from 
whom  Mrs.  Blaine  also  was  descended  by  a  dif 
ferent  branch. 

In  the  same  year  he  made  a  tour  through 
Pennsylvania,  and  visited  his  birthplace  and  the 
other  scenes  of  his  early  life.  His  reception  at 
the  several  places  he  visited  was  extraordinarily 
enthusiastic,  nowhere  more  so  than  at  the  college 
where  he  received  his  education,  and  where  he 
was  greeted  as  the  most  illustrious  graduate  of 
the  institution. 


300  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

In  the  summer  of  1887  he  sailed  for  Europe, 
accompanied  by  his  wife  and  his  unmarried 
daughters,  and  by  Miss  Dodge.  His  objects  were 
rest  and  sightseeing,  but  incidentally  he  met 
many  of  the  prominent  men  and  women  in  the 
countries  visited.  It  was  also  his  purpose,  as  he 
made  known  in  due  time,  to  escape  from  the 
complications  of  the  coming  presidential  can 
vass,  for  he  had  even  then  resolved  not  again  to 
be  a  candidate  for  the  nomination.  He  sailed 
from  New  York  on  the  20th  of  June,  and  reached 
London  in  time  for  the  Queen's  jubilee.  He 
found  an  invitation  awaiting  him  to  be  a  guest 
at  the  Lord  Mayor's  dinner,  and  to  a  party  the 
same  evening  at  the  Duchess  of  St.  Albans's. 
"After  the  first  half  hour  at  the  Duchess  of  St. 
Albans's  party,"  wrote  Mr.  George  W.  Smalley, 
in  an  article  in  the  New  York  "  Tribune,"  after 
Mr.  Elaine's  death,  "  everybody  wanted  to  know 
him.  It  rained  introductions."  He  was  invited, 
with  his  family,  to  the  Queen's  garden  party,  and 
had  a  long  and  interesting  conversation  with  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  now  King  Edward.  It  seems 
to  have  rained  invitations  as  well  as  introductions. 
Mr.  Smalley  reports  that  Mr.  Blaine  declined  an 
invitation  to  the  Foreign  Office,  on  the  ground 
that  he  had,  in  his  diplomatic  correspondence, 
attacked  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  the  Foreign 
Secretary;  that  he  also  declined  another  in  vita- 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       301 

tion  froin  Lord  Rosebery,  for  an  imassigned 
reason;  and  that  he  expressed  himself  as  un 
willing  to  be  presented  to  Lord  Hartington,  now 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire.  Such  acts  of  discrimi 
nation  among  members  of  the  highest  social 
class  in  England  show  at  least  that  he  was  no 
lion-hunter. 

In  July  Mr.  Blaine  went  to  Scotland,  to  be  the 
guest  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  at  Kilgrastow,  a 
few  miles  from  Perth.  After  a  visit  to  Ireland,  to 
the  family  of  his  son-in-law  Colonel  Coppinger, 
he  crossed  the  Channel  and  went  to  Homburg, 
for  the  waters,  thence  to  Vienna,  Buda-Pesth, 
and  Paris.  In  France  again  he  received  great 
social  attention  from  public  men.  President 
Carnot,  M.  Tirard,  the  prime  minister  of  the 
time,  M.  Floquet,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Deputies,  and  others,  sought  his  acquaintance 
and  did  him  honor. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  Paris  that  President 
Cleveland  astonished  the  country  and  the  world 
by  sending  to  Congress  his  remarkable  mes 
sage  on  the  tariff,  in  December,  1887.  With 
that  quick  perception  in  political  matters  which 
always  distinguished  him,  Mr.  Blaine  instantly 
saw  his  opportunity  to  speak  a  word  that  would 
close  the  breach  in  the  Republican  party  and  give 
it  a  rallying  cry  in  the  canvass  soon  to  begin.  Mr. 
Cleveland  had  summoned  his  own  party  to  an 


302  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

undertaking  in  accordance  with  its  avowed  prin 
ciples,  in  which  that  party  had  been  previously 
too  timid  to  engage,  because  of  the  division  in  its 
own  ranks.  His  message  was  a  splendid  exhibition 
of  political  courage,  and  it  gave  the  Democrats 
an  issue  upon  which  to  appeal  to  the  country. 
But  it  gave  an  issue  to  the  Repulicans  also.  Mr. 
Smalley,  the  London  correspondent  of  the  New 
York,  "  Tribune,"  called  upon  Mr.  Elaine  for 
an  expression  of  his  views  on  the  message,  a  ste 
nographer  was  called  in,  and  an  "  interview  "  was 
dictated  and  cabled  to  New  York. 

Mr.  Elaine  spoke  precisely  the  word  that  was 
needed  to  inspirit  his  party,  and  that  formed  the 
basis  of  the  arguments  which  the  Republicans,  in 
the  press  and  on  the  stump,  amplified  in  the  en 
suing  canvass.  He  maintained  that  the  policy 
enunciated  by  Presdent  Cleveland  would  sacri 
fice  the  control  of  the  home  market  for  an  illusive 
opportunity  to  compete  with  other  nations  in 
foreign  markets  of  less  extent  and  value;  that  a 
large  part  of  the  loss  would  fall  upon  the  farmers 
in  consequence  of  the  diminished  prosperity  of 
the  industrial  communities  which  gave  them 
the  best  of  their  customers;  that  the  South  in 
particular  needed  protection;  that,  in  fact,  the 
farmers  of  the  country,  with  their  wool  and  other 
products,  were  all  interested,  both  indirectly  and 
directly,  in  the  maintenance  and  extension  of  the 


AGAIN   SECRETARY  OF  STATE       303 

system.  For  the  reduction  of  the  unnecessarily 
large  surplus  he  recommended  the  entire  abolition 
of  the  tax  on  tobacco,  as  the  poor  man's  luxury. 
He  would  maintain  the  duty  on  whiskey,  partly 
for  temperance  reasons,  but  would  devote  the 
proceeds  of  that  tax  to  the  fortification  and  de 
fence  of  the  country. 

It  was  at  once  denominated  "Elaine's  Paris 
Message,"  and  it  gave  to  his  friends  and  sup 
porters  heart  for  the  coming  political  contest. 
On  all  hands  it  was  supposed  that  the  man  who 
had  with  a  word  rallied  a  party  that  had  been 
thrown  into  momentary  confusion  by  the  start 
ling  message  of  the  President,  would  again  be 
the  actual  leader,  as  he  had  been  in  1884.  But, 
as  has  been  said  already,  he  had  long  before  this 
time  determined  that  he  would  not  again  permit 
his  name  to  be  used.  In  January,  1888,  he  wrote 
from  Florence  several  letters  to  intimate  friends 
and  political  associates  announcing  his  decision. 
To  Mr.  Jones,  the  chairman  of  the  Republican 
National  Committee,  he  communicated  it  for 
mally,  saying  that  he  was  "constrained  in  this 
decision  by  considerations  entirely  personal  to 
myself,"  and  referring  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
mentioned  to  him  these  considerations  a  year 
previous.  But  to  his  closest  friends  he  explained 
in  more  detail.  In  a  letter  to  the  Hon.  Charles 
Emory  Smith,  dated  January  26,  having  said 


304  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

that  his  mind  was  made  up,  he  added,  "  Indeed, 
ever  since  the  last  election  I  have  felt  that  I 
would  not  run  again  unless  I  should  be  called 
upon  by  the  practically  unanimous  judgment  and 
wish  of  the  party.  I  did  not  expect  to  receive 
that  unanimity  and  therefore  feel  no  disappoint 
ment  that  other  candidates  are  in  the  field.  Should 
I  permit  my  name  to  go  into  the  convention  I 
would  certainly  meet  Sherman  from  Ohio,  Har 
rison  from  Indiana,  and  Hawley  from  Connecti 
cut.  Now,  Indiana  and  Connecticut  are  two  of 
the  States  which  we  must  have  to  succeed.  I 
would  not  run  again  except  upon  a  cordial 
unanimous  demand  of  those  States."  Having 
mentioned  other  probable  candidates,  he  said, 
"  I  do  not  doubt  that  I  could  be  nominated, 
and  if  I  had  not  been  defeated  in  1884  I  would 
undoubtedly  go  into  the  convention,  but  having 
had  my  chance  and  lost  I  do  not  wish  to  appear 
as  a  claimant  with  the  demand  '  Try  me  again.' " 
Such  letters,  written  to  intimate  friends  who 
were  devoted  to  his  fortunes,  and  there  were 
many  such  letters,  would  have  put  a  stop  to  the 
"boom"  for  any  other  candidate  than  Elaine. 
But  curiously  enough  those  enemies  of  the  man 
who  fancied  that  he  could  never  say  what  he 
meant,  nor  mean  what  he  said,  took  the  ground 
that  the  letters  were  "  a  bid  for  the  nomination  " 
instead  of  a  refusal  of  it;  and  many  of  his  most 


AGAIN   SECRETARY  OF  STATE       305 

earnest  friends  unwittingly  gave  support  to  this 
remarkable  theory  by  refusing  to  accept  his 
decision.  They  saw  in  his  letters  an  apparent 
willingness  to  stand  again  if  the  wish  for  his 
nomination  should  be  practically  unanimous, 
and  undertook  to  secure  unanimity.  Their  ex 
pectation  undoubtedly  was  that,  in  a  contest 
where  so  many  candidates  were  to  appear, '  no 
one  of  them  could  obtain  a  majority,  and  that 
at  the  last  the  desired  unanimity  would  be  ob 
tained.  ^That,  however,  was  not  at  all  Mr. 
Blaine's  idea.  He  meant  what  he  said.  At  no 
moment  until  the  convention  had  made  a  choice 
did  he  swerve  in  the  slightest  degree  from  his 
original  purpose.  It  was  not  the  unanimity  on 
a  "dark  horse"  that  he  required  to  change  his 
mind,  but  original  unanimity;  and  that  he 
knew  he  could  not  have.  In  many  forms  and  to 
many  friends  he  repeated  and  reiterated  that  his 
purpose  was  unchangeable,  and  that  events  since 
his  first  letter  to  Mr.  Jones  made  it  even  a  matter 
of  honor  not  to  retract,  nor  to  suffer  his  name  to 
be  used.  The  strongest  and  most  emphatic 
expression  of  this  idea  was  conveyed  in  a  letter 
to  the  Hon.  Whitelaw  Reid,  dated  May  17,  1888. 
"  If,"  he  wrote,  "  I  should  now,  by  speech  or 
by  silence,  by  commission  or  omission,  permit  my 
name  in  any  event  to  come  before  the  convention, 
I  should  incur  the  reproach  of  being  uncandid 


306  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

with  those  who  have  always  been  candid  with 
me.  ...  I  am  not  willing  to  be  the  cause  of 
misleading  a  single  man  among  the  millions 
who  have  given  me  their  suffrage  and  their  con 
fidence.  I  am  not  willing  that  even  one  of  my 
faithful  supporters  in  the  past  should  think  me 
capable  of  paltering  in  a  double  sense  with  my 
words.  Assuming  that  the  presidential  nomina 
tion  could  by  any  possible  chance  be  offered  to 
me,  I  could  not  accept  it  without  leaving  in  the 
minds  of  thousands  of  these  men  the  impression 
that  I  had  not  been  free  from  indirection,  and 
therefore  I  could  not  accept  it  at  all.  The  mis 
representations  of  malice  have  no  weight,  but 
the  just  displeasure  of  my  friends  I  could  not 
patiently  endure." 

Even  this  explicit  declaration  did  not  satisfy 
some  of  Elaine's  too  devoted  friends.  The  most 
of  those  who  were  nearest  to  him  by  intimate 
association  and  long  friendship  did  accept  it 
and  refrained  from  attempts  to  bring  about  his 
nomination.  Yet  it  may  be  questioned  if  they 
did  not  still  cherish  a  vague  hope  that  without 
activity  on  their  part  events  would  turn  out  so 
that  an  irresistible  call  to  him  to  be  the  candi 
date  would  break  down  his  opposition.1  The 

1  An  amusing  account  is  given,  in  a  letter  from  William 
Walter  Phelps  to  Mr.  Elkins,  of  the  manner  in  which  some 
of  Blame's  friends  considered  the  question  of  the  nomina- 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       307 

pressure  upon  him  continued,  and  the  attempts 
to  stampede  the  convention  were  persisted  in  to 
the  very  last,  in  spite  of  his  protests.  In  a  de 
spatch  from  Scotland  to  two  of  his  closest  political 

tion  before  the  convention  met.  It  would  be  improper  to 
print  the  names  of  the  persons  discussed  as  candidates  or 
those  of  the  persons  who  made  the  comments  reported  by 
Mr.  Phelps;  but  with  such  suppression  the  important  part 
of  the  letter  is  as  follows :  — 

"You  ought  to  have  been  at  the  Friday  night  conference. 
The  others  were  all  there  and  we  talked  many  hours.  There 
were  most  interesting  scenes,  for  it  became  a  question  as  to 
which  should  take  the  palm  for  distributing  the  plainest 
truths  among  his  friends. 

" was  ruled  out,  because  he  admitted  he  had  been  a 

Know-nothing;  only averse. 

" was  ruled  out,  because  he  could  n't  be  elected ;  no 

one  opposing. 

" ,  after  such  talks!  about  ruled  out,  final  ruling  out 

left  for  Friday  night  of  this  week,  when  we  meet  again. 

[the  same  person]  willing  to  be  ruled  out  last  Friday,  but  not 
unwilling  to  wait  and  see  what  he  would  see  for  himself  West, 
where  he  is  to-day.  He  was  ruled  out,  or  is  to  be,  simply 
because  Kansas,  Michigan,  and  Iowa  won't  vote  for  any 
Granger. 

"When  we  parted  it  was  Harrison  or ;  stronger 

for , stronger  for  Harrison. 

"The  only  ill-feeling  was  on 's  demand  for for 

Vice  President.  was  bitter.  It  would  weaken  the  ticket; 

it  would  be  greeted  with  laughter,  etc.  So  that  was  postponed 
—  and  all  questions  of  Vice  Pres't. 

"There,  that  is  the  summary  of  last  Friday.  But  the  details 
were  rich.  I  knew  they  would  be,  and  was  sorry  when  Reid 
handed  me  your  card  that  you  were  off." 


308  JAMES   G.   BLAINE 

friends  in  the  Maine  delegation  he  earnestly  be 
sought  them  to  respect  his  wishes,  and  he  sent 
a  second  despatch  on  the  same  day  in  which 
he  reiterated  the  request  in  language  almost  of 
reproach  that  the  repeated  demands  were  un 
heeded.  Although  Blaine  had  often  privately  ex 
pressed  the  opinion  that  General  Harrison  was 
the  best  and  strongest  candidate,  he  did  not  until 
the  last  moment  indicate  formally  his  wish  that 
that  gentleman  should  be  chosen.  A  code  had 
been  agreed  upon  between  his  friends  in  the 
United  States  and  himself,  and  when  a  deadlock 
or  a  long  contest  seemed  inevitable,  the  following 
despatch  was  sent  from  Mr.  Carnegie's  estate  in 
Scotland,  where  Blaine  was  staying,  to  a  promi 
nent  Republican  leader:  — 

June  25.  Too  late  victor  immovable  take 
trump  and  star.  WHIP. 

Two  roll-calls  in  the  convention  on  Friday, 
June  22,  and  three  on  Saturday,  had  resulted 
in  no  choice.  On  every  trial  John  Sherman,  of 
Ohio,  was  the  leader.  The  above  despatch  was 
sent  on  Monday  and  received  before  the  Con 
vention  assembled.  Interpreted,  it  reads :  — 

Too  late.  Blaine  immovable.  Take  Harrison 
and  Phelps.  CARNEGIE. 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       309 

The  Blaine  forces  were  turned  to  the  support 
of  General  Harrison,  and  he  was  nominated. 
Mr.  Elaine's  advice  to  nominate  William  Walter 
Phelps  for  Vice-President  was  not  followed.  The 
convention  chose  Mr.  Levi  P.  Morton  for  the 
place. 

An  incident  of  Mr.  Elaine's  stay  at  Mr.  Carne 
gie's  castle,  narrated  by  Mr.  T.  C.  Crawford,  will 
illustrate  the  character  of  the  espionage  to  which 
he  was  subjected  during  most  of  his  European 
tour.  Mr.  Crawford  —  a  journalist  who  was  in 
many  ways  associated  with  Mr.  Blaine,  and  who 
has  written  a  biography  of  him  which  the  pre 
sent  writer  has  found  useful  —  says  that  when 
Blaine  was  on  the  continent  a  reporter  for  a 
New  York  newspaper  dogged  his  footsteps,  way 
laid  servants  and  questioned  them,  and  carried 
his  system  of  personal  annoyance  to  such  a  de 
gree  that  Blaine  was  forced  to  take  measures 
even  to  protect  his  private  correspondence  from 
being  violated.  This  man  followed  Blaine  to 
Scotland,  and  on  one  occasion  disguised  him 
self  as  a  servant,  secured  Elaine's  mail  from 
the  postman,  opened  his  letters  and  read  them, 
and  left  them  on  the  ground. 

After  the  nomination  there  was  no  need  of 
further  persecution,  and  the  last  weeks  of  the 
stay  in  Europe  were  free  from  annoyance.  The 
family  party  sailed  for  home  in  August,  after  an 


310  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

absence  from  America  of  more  than  a  year. 
Hosts  of  friends  met  him  in  New  York  on  the 
arrival  of  the  steamship,  and  gave  him  a  royal 
welcome.  He  entered  at  once  into  the  campaign, 
was  in  demand  in  every  State,  spoke  to  vast 
throngs  of  people,  and  contributed  greatly  to 
the  success  of  the  Republican  candidates. 

Immediately  upon  receiving  news  of  General 
Harrison's  nomination,  Mr.  Blaine  had  sent  to 
the  new  Republican  "standard-bearer"  a  de 
spatch  of  congratulation,  as  he  had  done  to 
Hayes  in  1876  and  to  Garfield  in  1880.  General 
Harrison,  in  acknowledging  it,  referred  to  it 
as  "so  prompt,  so  generous,  and  so  stirring;" 
and  he  also  practically  recognized  Elaine's  own 
agency  in  bringing  about  the  nomination.  "  From 
your  most  intimate  and  trusted  friends  I  had  the 
assurance  that  in  a  possible  contingency  you  and 
they  might  regard  my  nomination  with  favor. 
It  was  only  such  assurances  that  made  my  In 
diana  friends  hopeful  of  success,  and  only  the 
help  of  friends  made  success  possible."  In  a 
letter  written  on  the  eve  of  Mr.  Blaine's  return 
to  this  country,  he  again  gave  expression  to  his 
cordial  sentiments.  No  doubt  he  appreciated 
and  was  grateful  for  the  efficient  service  of  Blaine 
on  the  stump. 

Public  opinion  of  every  shade  took  it  for  granted 
that  the  President-elect  would  offer  to  him  the 


AGAIN   SECRETARY  OF  STATE       311 

position  of  Secretary  of  State.  No  intimation  has 
ever  been  made,  publicly  at  least,  that  General 
Harrison  considered  any  other  person  for  the 
chief  portfolio  in  his  cabinet.  Nevertheless  it 
was  not  until  the  17th  of  January,  1889,  more 
than  two  months  after  the  election,  that  the  offer 
of  the  portfolio  was  made.  Many  of  Blaine's 
friends,  possibly  he  himself,  thought  the  delay 
strange,  and  suspected  that  it  portended  the 
choice  of  another  person  as  Secretary.  There 
was  probably  no  reason  for  such  a  suspicion. 
The  tender  of  the  cabinet  position  was  not  so 
prompt  as  it  had  been  when  Garfield  made  the 
offer,  but  it  was  made  in  most  cordial  terms.  The 
difference  in  temperament  between  the  two 
Presidents,  and  the  fact  of  a  friendly  intimacy 
between  Garfield  and  Blaine,  which  had  never 
existed  to  so  great  a  degree  between  Harrison 
and  Blaine,  furnish  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
the  two  months'  delay,  if  any  explanation  be 
needed. 

A  personal  note  accompanied  the  formal  offer 
of  the  State  Department.  General  Harrison 
expressed  himself  as  "  especially  interested  in  the 
improvement  of  our  relations  with  the  Central 
and  South  American  States."  He  remarked  that 
three  distinct  questions  with  three  several  Euro 
pean  powers  called  for  "early  and  discreet  at 
tention."  He  also  expressed  his  desire  to  con- 


312  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

duct  affairs  so  as  "to  preserve  harmony  in  our 
party,"  and  was  "very  solicitous  to  avoid  any 
thing  that  would  promote  dissensions,  and  very 
desirous  that  the  civil  service  shall  be  placed 
and  conducted  on  that  high  plane  which  will 
recommend  our  party  to  the  confidence  of  all  the 
people." 

Mr.  Blaine  replied  on  January  21,  accepting 
the  office,  and  reciprocating  in  the  fullest  mea 
sure  "the  cordiality  and  confidence  which  mark 
every  line  of  it "  [the  letter].  He  was  "  in  heartiest 
accord  with  the  principles  and  policies  which 
you  briefly  outline  for  your  administration," 
and  was  "especially  pleased  with  what  you  say 
in  regard  to  foreign  affairs."  His  expression  of 
loyalty  to  his  new  chief  was  not  put  in  the  same 
terms  as  those  in  which  he  effaced  himself  to 
serve  General  Garfield,  but  it  was  equally  sig 
nificant.  "In  becoming  a  member  of  your 
cabinet  I  can  have  no  motive,  near  or  remote, 
inconsistent  with  the  greatest  strength  and  high 
est  interests  of  your  administration,  and  of  your 
self  as  its  personal  and  official  head." 

So  Mr.  Blaine  became  Secretary  of  State  a 
second  time,  and  reentered  the  public  service 
after  an  interval  of  a  little  more  than  seven 
years.  He  took  up  duties  much  more  congenial 
than  those  of  the  higher  office  in  which  the  people 
had  failed  to  place  him.  He  had  reached  the 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       313 

age  of  fifty-eight  years  and  was  at  a  period  of  life 
when  a  man  of  such  robust  constitution  as  he 
enjoyed  should  be  at  the  height  of  physical  as 
well  as  of  mental  power.  But  the  last  twelve  of 
those  years  had  been  passed,  either  in  strife  with 
those  who  were  determined  to  break  him  down, 
or  in  silent  endurance  of  attacks  which  he  was 
too  proud  to  resent.  Hard  work  and  the  mental 
strain  and  distress  caused  by  the  unrelenting 
opposition  he  encountered  had  to  a  certain  ex 
tent  undermined  his  health.  But  his  opportunity 
had  come  —  the  opportunity  interrupted  by  the 
death  of  Garfield  —  to  delight  his  friends  and  to 
confound  his  enemies,  by  a  brilliant  conduct  of 
foreign  affairs.  As  before,  his  two  watchwords 
were  peace  and  a  firm  assertion  of  American 
rights. 

He  entered  promptly  upon  the  work  before 
him.  Most  of  the  questions  with  which  he  had 
to  deal  were  inherited  from  the  preceding  ad 
ministration.  Upon  the  whole,  savagely  as  his 
treatment  of  those  matters  has  been  criticised, 
his  course  was  not  markedly  different  from  that 
of  Mr.  Bayard.  He  reversed  nothing  that  his 
predecessor  had  done.  If  he  was  more  urgent, 
more  positive,  more  pungent  in  his  correspond 
ence  than  Mr.  Bayard,  it  was  because  he  was 
more  forceful  in  speech,  in  acts,  in  temperament 
generally.  The  first  matter  to  receive  particular 


314  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

attention  was  the  situation  in  Samoa.  The  Ger 
man  government  took  an  irritating  attitude,  for 
it  put  forth  a  claim  to  paramount  influence  on 
the  ground  of  superior  financial  and  commer 
cial  interests  in  the  Samoan  group  of  islands ;  and 
fostered  a  revolution  and  the  deposition  of  the 
recognized  king.  Mr.  Blaine  insisted  upon  the 
equality  of  the  three  powers  which  had  estab 
lished  the  governmental  status  of  the  islands,  — 
Great  Britain,  the  German  Empire,  and  the 
United  States.  The  correspondence  was  volu 
minous,  but  in  the  end  Mr.  Blaine  carried  every 
point  on  which  he  insisted.  There  was  a  resump 
tion  of  the  conference  between  the  three  powers, 
at  Berlin,  and  a  treaty  was  made  under  the  terms 
of  which  a  chief  justice  of  the  islands  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  sovereign  of  a  neutral  and  dis 
interested  power,  the  king  of  Sweden  and  Nor 
way.  With  the  subsequent  events  —  the  attempt 
of  the  pretender  Mataafa  to  seize  the  throne,  the 
despatch  of  a  warship  of  the  United  States  to  Apia 
to  assist  in  enforcing  the  provisions  of  the  treaty, 
which  President  Cleveland  declared1  "  signally  il 
lustrate  the  impolicy  of  entangling  alliances  with 
foreign  powers,"  and  the  partition  of  Samoa 
between  Germany  and  the  United  States  —  with 
these  matters  we  have  nothing  to  do. 

On  May  24,   1888,  President  Cleveland  ap- 
1  Annual  Message,  December  4,  1893. 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE      315 

proved  a  resolution  of  Congress  authorizing  and 
requesting  the  President  to  invite  the  inde 
pendent  powers  of  the  two  American  continents, 
and  Haiti  and  Santo  Domingo,  to  send  delegates 
to  a  conference  to  be  held  in  Washington,  sub 
stantially  for  the  purposes  mentioned  in  the  in 
vitation  issued  in  1881  by  Mr.  Blaine  in  the 
name  of  President  Arthur.  It  could  not  have 
been  anticipated  that  the  whirligig  of  politics 
would  restore  to  the  originator  of  the  measure 
the  duty  of  carrying  it  into  execution.  But 
the  invitations  were  transmitted,  were  accepted 
by  all  the  governments  to  which  they  were  ad 
dressed,  and  when  the  delegates  met  at  Wash 
ington  on  the  2d  of  October,  1889,  it  was  James 
G.  Blaine  who  welcomed  them  to  the  country, 
and,  in  a  speech  eloquent  and  noble  in  its  sen 
timents,  set  before  them  the  duties  they  were 
undertaking  and  the  spirit  in  which  those  duties 
were  to  be  performed.  He  may  be  said  to  have 
summed  it  all  up  in  the  following  passage, 
in  which  he  characterized  the  assembly:  "an 
honorable,  peaceful  conference  of  seventeen  in 
dependent  American  powers,  in  which  all  shall 
meet  together  on  terms  of  absolute  equality;  a 
conference  in  which  there  can  be  no  attempt  to 
coerce  a  single  delegate  against  his  own  concep 
tion  of  the  interests  of  his  nation;  a  conference 
which  will  permit  no  secret  understanding  on 


316  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

any  subject,  but  will  frankly  publish  to  the  world 
all  its  conclusions;  a  conference  which  will  tol 
erate  no  spirit  of  conquest,  but  will  aim  to  culti 
vate  an  American  sympathy  as  broad  as  both 
continents;  a  conference  which  will  form  no 
selfish  alliance  against  the  older  nations  from 
which  we  are  proud  to  claim  inheritance,  —  a 
conference,  in  fine,  which  will  seek  nothing,  pro 
pose  nothing,  endure  nothing  that  is  not,  in  the 
general  sense  of  all  the  delegates,  timely,  wise,  and 
peaceful." 

Mr.  Blaine  was  chosen  president  of  the  confer 
ence,  which  held  seventy  sessions  and  did  not 
complete  its  labors  until  the  middle  of  April, 
1890.  Some  measures  of  great  importance  were 
decided  upon;  upon  others  an  agreement  could 
not  be  reached.  But  no  one  can  read  the  debates 
in  the  conference  without  being  impressed  by  the 
conciliatory  attitude  of  all  the  delegates,  and  in 
particular  by  the  friendliness  displayed  toward 
the  United  States.  Mr.  Blaine  was  fully  justified 
in  saying,  in  his  speech  just  before  declaring  the 
conference  at  an  end :  "  If,  in  this  closing  hour, 
the  conference  had  but  one  deed  to  celebrate, 
we  should  dare  to  call  the  world's  attention 
to  the  deliberate,  confident,  solemn  dedication 
of  two  great  continents  to  peace  and  to  the 
prosperity  which  has  peace  for  its  foundation. 
We  hold  up  this  new  magna  charta  which  abol- 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       317 

ishes*  war  and  substitutes  arbitration  between  the 
American  republics,  as  the  first  and  great  fruit 
of  the  International  American  Conference." 

Optimism  is  required  on  such  an  occasion. 
Probably  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  feel  great  confi 
dence  that  war  between  the  American  republics 
had  been  abolished,  save  in  theory.  There  is  no 
doubt  whatever  that  the  conference  has  ever 
since  been  influential  in  the  direction  of  peace, 
nor  that  wars  have  been  less  frequent  among  the 
Spanish  American  nations  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  than  formerly.  Nevertheless,  only  nine 
weeks  after  the  conference  adjourned  finally 
there  was  a  revolution  in  Salvador;  Guatemala 
refused  to  recognize  the  new  Salvadorean  govern 
ment  and  began  hostilities  against  it;  and  there 
was  a  brief  but  bloody  war.  The  government  of 
Guatemala  trespassed  upon  the  rights  of  the 
United  States  by  seizing  arms  from  the  Pacific 
mail  steamship  Colima,  and  by  intercepting 
telegrams  addressed  to  the  United  States  minis 
ter  to  Central  America.  General  Ezeta,  com 
manding  the  forces  of  Salvador,  attacked  the 
United  States  consulate  in  the  city  of  San  Sal 
vador,  tore  down  the  flag,  and  damaged  the  pro 
perty.  The  correspondence  relative  to  these  out 
rages  and  to  reparation  and  apology  for  them, 
was  quite  different  in  tone  from  the  gentle,  peace 
ful  and  reciprocally  complimentary  language 


318  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

used  in  the  conference.  Moreover,  the  positive 
refusal  of  the  authorities  of  Salvador  for  a  long 
time  to  accept  the  good  offices  of  the  United 
States  in  reestablishing  peace  with  Guatemala, 
was  anything  but  a  confirmation  of  the  hopeful 
assurance  by  Mr.  Blaine,  a  few  months  before, 
that  arbitration  was  thenceforth  to  settle  all  na 
tional  differences  on  these  continents.  But  hu 
man  nature,  and  particularly  Spanish- American 
nature,  cannot  be  made  peaceable  by  treaty. 

The  next  year,  1891,  there  was  another  occur 
rence,  this  time  in  the  city  of  Valparaiso,  grossly 
injurious  to  the  United  States,  almost  humor 
ously  inconsistent  with  the  sentiments  expressed 
at  Washington  in  1890.  There  was  a  revolution 
in  Chile,  also.  The  minister  to  that  country  was 
Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  a  great  friend  and  ardent 
supporter  of  Mr.  Blaine,  but  most  obnoxious  to 
Englishmen  on  account  of  his  connection  with 
Irish  revolutionary  movements.  The  particular 
enemies  of  Mr.  Blaine  pronounced  the  appoint 
ment  of  Egan  scandalous,  and  lost  no  oppor 
tunity  to  throw  discredit  upon  his  conduct  in  the 
extremely  difficult  situation  in  which  he  was 
placed.  Nevertheless,  his  course  seems  to  have 
been  correct  and  discreet,  and  he  refuted  suc 
cessfully  all  the  charges  brought  against  him. 

Before  the  Chilean  revolution  was  accom 
plished,  Mr.  Egan  properly  maintained  good  re- 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       319 

lations  with  the  existing  government.  When  the 
revolutionists  obtained  possession  of  Valparaiso 
some  of  the  defeated  government  officials  took 
refuge  in  the  American  legation,  and  Mr.  Egan 
gave  them  asylum,  as  it  was  his  duty  to  do.  But 
this  course  was  offensive  to  the  revolutionary 
leaders,  and  to  their  supporters  in  Valparaiso. 
The  United  States  cruiser  Baltimore,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Winfield  S.  Schley,  visited 
the  port  at  this  time,  and  one  evening  when 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  of  the  war 
vessel  were  on  shore  leave,  a  slight  affray  in  a 
drinking  saloon  between  an  American  sailor  and 
a  Chilean  led  to  the  gathering  of  a  mob  of  about 
five  thousand  Chileans,  who  attacked  the  Ameri 
cans.  One  sailor  of  the  Baltimore  was  killed,  — 
by  a  policeman  according  to  the  statement  of 
some  of  his  fellows,  —  and  many  were  injured. 
It  would  require  pages  to  narrate  in  detail  the 
delays,  the  denials,  the  obstacles  thrown  in  the 
way  of  investigation,  the  haughty  insolence  of 
the  provisional  minister  of  foreign  relations,  of 
the  intendente  of  Valparaiso,  and  of  the  judge 
of  the  criminal  court.  The  climax  was  reached 
in  a  despatch  from  the  foreign  minister  to  Senor 
Montt,  the  Chilean  minister  in  Washington,  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  statements  in  the 
message  of  the  President  and  in  the  report  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  were  either  "errone- 


320  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

ous  or  deliberately  incorrect,"  and  that  "more 
over  there  is  neilher  exactness  nor  sincerity  in 
what  is  said  at  Washington."  No  satisfaction  of 
any  sort  could  be  obtained  from  the  provisional 
government;  but  after  an  election  had  been  held 
a  new  administration  was  inaugurated,  by  which 
ample  apologies  were  made  and  the  insulting 
references  to  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy  were  frankly  withdrawn.  The  affair 
itself,  rather  than  the  diplomatic  correspondence, 
is  interesting.  The  situation  called  for  firmness 
and  peremptoriness,  but  not  for  the  exercise  of 
any  unusual  intellectual  force.  In  the  end  the 
Secretary  of  State  gained  his  point  without  even 
the  most  distant  suggestion  of  coercion  to  secure 
it.  To  that  extent  this  government  observed  the 
humane  rules  adopted  by  the  conference,  if 
Chile  did  not. 

To  return  from  these  digressions,  the  confer 
ence  of  1889-90  was  far  from  fruitless.  From 
it  came  directly  the  establishment  of  the  Bureau 
of  American  Republics,  which  has  done  much 
in  a  quiet  way  to  promote  commercial  relations 
between  the  several  countries.  It  has  not  made 
them  all  friends,  each  to  all  the  rest,  nor  has  it 
dissipated  wholly  a  certain  cloud  of  vague  sus 
picion  that  arises  from  time  to  time,  in  this  coun 
try  and  that,  as  to  the  ultimate  purposes  of  the 
United  States.  But  it  will  hardly  be  denied  that 


AGAIN   SECRETARY  OF  STATE       321 

it  has  to  an  appreciable  extent  ameliorated  con 
ditions.  The  settlement  of  two  or  three  boundary 
disputes  of  long  standing  between  South  Ameri 
can  governments,  in  particular  that  between 
Chile  and  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  the  agree 
ment,  which  has  been  carried  out,  to  dispose  of 
their  navies,  may  be  attributed  almost  directly 
to  the  conference.  But  even  if  the  conference 
had  resulted  in  nothing  save  peaceful  profes 
sions,  meaning  nothing  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  uttered  them,  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Elaine  in 
originating  the  movement,  and  his  agency  in  con 
ducting  it,  can  have  nothing  but  the  heartiest 
praise  from  every  lover  of  peace.  To  no  one  in 
this  country  can  be  attributed  more  earnest, 
zealous,  and  prolonged  effort  in  the  cause  of  in 
ternational  arbitration. 

One  of  the  most  important  matters  that  en 
gaged  Mr.  Elaine's  attention  during  his  incum 
bency  of  the  State  department  was  the  question 
of  the  seal  fishery  in  the  Bering  Sea,  —  a  subject 
of  extraordinary  difficulty.  Prior  to  the  cession 
of  Alaska  to  the  United  States  Russia  enjoyed, 
unmolested  and  unquestioned,  a  monopoly  of 
that  industry.  When  the  peninsula  and  the 
outlying  islands  were  acquired  by  the  United 
States,  in  1867,  a  monopoly  was  granted  to  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company  in  consideration 
of  a  yearly  rental,  and  a  fixed  sum  for  each  seal 


322  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

killed,  upon, certain  stringent  conditions.  Male 
seals  only  were  to  be  killed,  on  the  Pribilof 
Islands  only,  and  not  to  exceed  a  certain  number 
annually,  which  was  eventually  fixed  at  one  hun 
dred  thousand.  Pelagic  sealing,  that  is,  killing 
seals  in  the  open  ocean,  was  absolutely  pro 
hibited,  as  was  also  the  slaughter  of  females. 
The  company  undertook  to  provide  the  island 
ers  employed  in  the  killing  with  food,  medical 
attendance,  and  other  necessaries.  Under  the 
regulations  established,  which  were  strictly  en 
forced,  the  seal  herd  increased  and  the  business 
promised  to  be  permanent.  Almost  all  the  skins 
were  sent  to  England  to  be  dressed,  so  that  the 
people  of  that  country  had  an  interest  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  herd,  the  last  of  many,  all  of 
which  in  both  oceans,  south  as  well  as  north  of 
the  equator,  had  been  exterminated  by  reckless 
and  unrestrained  pelagic  killing. 

Until  about  the  year  1886  there  was  no  at 
tempt  on  the  part  of  any  one  to  engage  in  sealing 
in  violation  of  any  rights  granted  to  the  company. 
Then  a  few  sealers  were  fitted  out  in  British 
Columbia,  which  entered  Bering  Sea  and  killed 
seals  in  the  open  ocean,  of  course  without  any 
discrimination  as  to  sex.  They  were  killed  by  the 
use  of  firearms,  and  many  of  them  —  some  ex 
perts  said  a  large  proportion  of  them  —  sank 
and  did  not  rise  again.  Mr.  Bayard  called  the 


AGAIN  SECRETARY  OF  STATE       323 

attention  of  Lord  Salisbury  to  the  wanton  de 
struction,  and  to  the  interest  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  world  in  the  preservation  of  this,  the  last 
important  herd  of  fur-bearing  seals.  He  received 
a  sympathetic  reply,  and  there  seemed  a  good 
prospect  of  an  arrangement  by  which  the  de 
structive  practice  should  be  prohibited.  The 
government,  Mr.  Cleveland  being  then  President, 
sent  revenue  cutters  into  Bering  Sea  to  enforce 
what  were  assumed  to  be  American  rights,  and 
some  British  sealers  were  captured,  sent  to 
American  ports,  and  condemned,  together  with 
the  sealskins  taken  by  them.  This  was  the  sit 
uation  at  the  time  that  the  administration  was 
changed  and  Mr.  Blaine  became  Secretary  of 
State. 

It  would  be  impossible,  within  reasonable 
limits,  to  give  an  adequate  summary  of  the  dip 
lomatic  correspondence  on  this  subject  in  the 
years  1890  and  1891,  between  Mr.  Blaine  on  the 
one  side,  and  Lord  Salisbury  and  Sir  Julian 
Pauncefote  on  the  other.  It  must  be  admitted, 
first,  that  on  the  exact  technicalities  of  inter 
national  law  and  usage  the  case  of  the  United 
States  was  not  perfect;  secondly,  that,  even  if 
there  were  no  flaw  in  the  reasoning,  Great  Bri 
tain  could  not  be  compelled  to  yield  to  the  force 
of  logic.  It  was  a  case  in  which,  if  Lord  Salisbury 
should  stand  by  the  rights  claimed  by  Cana- 


324  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

dians,  and  should  disregard  the  argument  that 
the  good  of  mankind  required  that  the  United 
States  should  continue  to  protect  the  seal  herd 
from  extermination,  this  country  would  ulti 
mately  fail  to  carry  its  point.  The  Marquis  of 
Salisbury  was  himself  at  first  inclined  to  agree 
to  the  American  view  of  the  matter.  The  opera 
tions  of  United  States  revenue  cutters  were,  of 
course,  irritating,  but  that  difficulty  was  easily 
surmountable.  Canada,  however,  was  obdurate; 
and  when  Mr.  Blaine  argued  for  American 
rights,  Lord  Salisbury  argued  back,  and  the  main 
point,  that,  whether  there  were  or  were  not 
rights,  good  policy  required  a  concession  on  the 
part  of  the  British  government,  was  too  fre 
quently  forgotten. 

It  was  a  fine  contest  of  wits.  Mr.  Blaine  made 
the  point  that  the  destruction  of  the  seal  herd 
was  contra  bonos  mores,  and  that  Great  Britain 
was  interested  directly  in  putting  a  stop  to  it. 
He  urged  that  by  the  possession  of  the  Pribilof 
Islands,  where  the  seals  resorted  in  countless 
numbers  to  bring  forth  and  rear  their  young, 
the  United  States  was  virtually  in  possession  of 
the  herd.  He  held  that  the  undisturbed  monopoly 
enjoyed  by  Russia,  which  had  ceded  all  its  rights 
to  the  United  States,  gave  this  country  a  title  to 
the  monopoly  akin  to  the  title  which  in  law  is 
known  as  prescription.  Lord  Salisbury  disputed 


AGAIN   SECRETARY    OF    STATE       325 

all  these  positions.  He  took  the  ground  with  re 
ference  to  the  last  point  that  it  was  essentially 
a  claim  that  the  Bering  Sea  was  mare  clausum,  a 
position  which  Mr.  Blaine  over  and  over  again 
declared  that  he  did  not  advance  and  did  not 
hold.  He  admitted  the  absolute  right  of  the  mari 
time  powers  of  the  world  to  sail  that  sea  for  pur 
poses  of  commerce  or  fishing.  He  claimed  no 
more  than  a  right  which  the  United  States  equally 
with  Great  Britain  had  tacitly  conceded  to  Russia 
so  long  as  that  country  owned  Alaska. 

Lord  Salisbury  called  attention  to  a  protest 
by  John  Quincy  Adams,  when  Secretary  of  State, 
against  a  ukase  of  the  Tsar  claiming  jurisdic 
tion  over  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  miles  from  the  coast.  Mr.  Blaine  in 
sisted,  and  maintained  that  he  proved  absolutely, 
that  the  protest  had  no  reference  to  Bering  Sea, 
which  was  known  as  the  North  Sea,  whereas  the 
Pacific  was  called  the  South  Sea,  Long  argu 
ments  ensued  on  this  point,  and  neither  contes 
tant  was  convinced.  Lord  Salisbury  made  much 
of  the  rule  of  international  law  that  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  a  country  ceases  at  a  distance  of  three 
miles  from  the  coast.  Mr.  Blaine  retorted  that 
Great  Britain  disregarded  that  rule  at  its  own 
convenience,  as  in  its  assertion  of  control  over 
the  Ceylon  pearl  fishery,  and  by  its  prohibition 
of  trawling  in  the  North  Sea  between  two  points 


326  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

of  the  Scottish  coast,  over  an  area  twenty-seven 
hundred  miles  in  extent.  He  could  elicit  no  reply 
to  this  home  thrust.  The  reply  would  doubtless 
be  that  Great  Britain  has  always  claimed  that 
the  line  of  jurisdiction  does  not  follow  the  sinu 
osities  of  the  coast  but  is  drawn  from  headland 
to  headland.  But  inasmuch  as  no  other  govern 
ment  has  conceded  that  method  of  ascertaining 
the  extent  of  jurisdiction,  the  claim  is  even  less 
supported  than  that  of  Russia  over  the  Bering 
Sea,  which  other  powers  did  at  least  respect  by 
refraining  from  trespass. 

So  far  as  Mr.  Blaine's  object  in  the  correspond 
ence  was  to  convince  the  British  foreign  secre 
tary  that  this  government  had  a  right  to  exclude 
unlicensed  sealers,  and  by  a  police  power  over 
Bering  Sea  to  capture  and  condemn  them  as 
poachers,  his  effort  failed.  But  a  modus  vivendi 
was  patched  up,  which  was  wholly  ineffective 
during  the  single  season  it  was  in  force,  for 
there  were  more  British  sealers  in  the  protected 
waters  than  ever  before.  Great  Britain  refused 
to  renew  the  arrangement.  Then  a  treaty  was 
made  under  which  the  questions  at  issue  were 
submitted  to  arbitration.  The  decision  of  the 
tribunal  was  adverse  to  the  contentions  of  the 
United  States;  and  an  award  of  damages  for 
the  seizure  of  British  sealers  by  American  reve 
nue  cutters  completed  the  defeat  of  the  United 


AGAIN    SECRETARY   OF    STATE       327 

States  in  the  diplomatic  controversy.  The  depre 
dations  —  if  the  word  may  be  used  to  describe 
acts  that  were  thus  practically  declared  lawful  — 
have  continued,  and  the  seal  herd  is  so  nearly 
extinct  as  hardly  to  be  worth  hunting. 

Mr.  Blaine  did  not  confine  his  activities  while 
Secretary  of  State  strictly  to  the  matters  con 
cerning  his  own  department.  One  of  those  dra 
matic  incidents  of  which  so  many  marked  his 
public  career  occurred  during  the  consideration 
of  the  tariff  bill  of  1890.  He  intervened  almost 
directly  to  prevent  the  sacrifice  of  the  only  weapon 
the  government  possessed  to  compel  the  coun 
tries  of  the  American  continents  to  open  their 
markets  on  more  favorable  terms  to  the  pro 
ducts  of  the  United  States.  Already  coffee,  hides, 
and  crude  india  rubber  were  free  of  duty.  It  was 
proposed  in  the  McKinley  bill  as  it  was  origin 
ally  drawn,  and  as  it  passed  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  to  place  sugar  also  on  the  free  list. 
If  that  were  to  be  done,  substantiaTTy  all  the  pro 
ducts  of  tropical  America,  except  tobacco,  would 
be  admitted  to  the  United  States  without  the 
payment  of  duty,  whereas  the  tariffs  of  all  the 
countries  of  Central  and  South  America  were 
so  drawn  as  to  be  highly  disadvantageous  to  the 
United  States.  This  country  would  then  be 
placed  in  the  same  position  with  respect  to  them 
that  Great  Britain  has  accepted  with  respect  to 


328  JAMES   G.   ELAINE 

the  whole  world,  —  a  situation  which  led  Mr. 
Chamberlain  to  propound  his  fiscal  policy,  in 
1903,  and  to  advise  that  the  British  govern 
ment  should  resume  the  weapon  of  tariff  retalia 
tion. 

Mr.  Blaine  alone  of  the  public  men  of  the 
time  discerned  the  essential  weakness  of  this 
policy.  He  saw  that  Congress  was  about  to 
throw  away  a  great  opportunity  to  extend  the 
export  trade  of  the  country.  Public  criticism  of 
measures  before  Congress  by  officers  of  the  exec 
utive  branch  of  the  government,  and  specific  ad 
vice  as  to  the  amendment  of  such  measures,  are 
almost  unknown  in  American  political  history, 
and  are  regarded  as  highly  improper.  No  one 
knew  this  better  than  did  Mr.  Blaine,  yet  so  earn 
est  was  he  in  his  purpose  to  secure  an  entrance 
into  the  markets  of  Latin  America  that  he  ven 
tured  to  do  the  unusual  and  the  improper  thing. 

Early  in  June  he  sent  to  the  President  a  report 
of  the  International  American  Conference,  which 
recommended  the  negotiation  of  reciprocal  com 
mercial  treaties  between  the  United  States  and 
the  other  republics  of  America.  Mr.  Blaine  ac 
companied  the  report  with  some  extremely  sug 
gestive  statistics,  showing  the  insignificant  amount 
of  American  produce  taken  by  the  countries  of 
Latin  America,  and  urged  that  the  trade  might 
be  greatly  increased  by  judicious  amendment  of 


AGAIN   SECRETARY   OF   STATE      329 

the  pending  tariff  bill.1  The  President  sent  the 
paper  of  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Congress  with 
a  special  message,  in  which  he  commended  gen 
erally  the  idea  of  using  the  special  favors  to  be 
granted  to  the  sister  republics  to  secure  favors 
from  them  in  return,  but  did  not  echo  Mr. 
Elaine's  suggestion  of  amendment  to  the  tariff 
bill.  He  did,  in  fact,  go  as  far  as  it  was  proper 
for  him  to  go  in  seconding  Mr.  Elaine's  motion.2 
As  soon  as  the  message  of  the  President  had 
been  read  to  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hale,  of  Maine, 
introduced  an  amendment  to  the  tariff  bill  em 
bodying  Mr.  Elaine's  views.  It  provided  that 
the  ports  of  the  United  States  should  be  free 
"  to  all  the  products  of  any  nation  of  the  Ameri 
can  hemisphere"  which  should  levy  no  export 
duties  on  those  products,  and  which  should  ad 
mit  free  of  duty  a  specified  list  of  American  pro 
ducts.  This  plan  ultimately  proved  impractic 
able,  because  it  would  have  established  free 
trade  with  Canada,  and  also  because  it  would 
have  made  wool  free  of  duty,  neither  of  which 
measures  was  desired  by  the  protectionists,  or, 
probably,  by  Mr.  Elaine  himself. 

The  proposition  in  its  general  purpose,  as  well 

1  The  bill  had  already  been  passed  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  on  May  21. 

2  See  his  message  of  June  19,  1890.   Messages  and  Papers 
of  tJie  Presidents,  vol.  ix,  p.  74. 


330  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

as  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  brought  before 
the  Senate,  was  not  favorably  received  by  sena 
tors.  But  Mr.  Blaine  was  greatly  in  earnest,  and 
practically  appealed  from  the  Senate  to  the  peo 
ple.  In  July  he  addressed  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Senator  Frye,  of  Maine,  in  which  he  expressed 
himself  in  the  most  vigorous  manner  upon  what 
seemed  to  him  the  foolish  neglect  of  a  great  op 
portunity.  He  made  the  point  that  the  most 
effective  because  the  most  plausible  argument 
against  the  protective  system  was  "  that  its  bene 
fits  go  wholly  to  the  manufacturer  and  the  capi 
talist  and  not  at  all  to  the  farmer."  Then  he 
proceeded:  "Here  is  an  opportunity  where  the 
farmer  may  be  benefited  —  primarily,  undeniably, 
richly  benefited.  Here  is  an  opportunity  for  a 
Republican  Congress  to  open  the  markets  of 
forty  millions  of  people  to  the  products  of  Ameri 
can  farms.  Shall  we  seize  the  opportunity,  or 
shall  we  throw  it  away  ?  I  do  not  doubt  that  in 
many  respects  the  tariff  bill  pending  in  the  Sen 
ate  is  a  just  measure,  and  that  most  of  its  pro 
visions  are  in  accordance  with  the  wise  policy 
of  protection.  But  there  is  not  a  section  or  a  line 
in  the  entire  bill  that  will  open  the  market  for 
another  bushel  of  wheat  or  another  barrel  of 
pork." 

The  letter  was  intended  to  be  read  by  people 
throughout  the  country,  and  it  was  read  by  them. 


AGAIN    SECRETARY    OF    STATE      331 

The  idea  pleased  the  farmers  everywhere.  It 
soon  became  evident  that  the  scheme  was  too 
popular  to  be  rejected,  and  ultimately  the  "  re 
ciprocity"  section  of  the  McKinley  act  was 
adopted.  It  provided  that  although  sugar,  coffee, 
tea,  and  hides  were  to  be  free  of  duty,  a  duty 
should  be  imposed  upon  such  articles  when  en 
tering  an  American  port  from  any  country  which 
maintained  a  tariff  upon  American  goods  which, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  President,  was  "unequal 
and  unreasonable."  A  story  crept  into  the  news 
papers  and  is  even  repeated  by  Gail  Hamilton, 
that  Mr.  Blaine  appeared  before  the  Finance 
Committee  of  the  Senate  and  urged  his  reci 
procity  measure  with  such  vehemence  that  he 
smashed  his  hat  in  making  one  of  his  vigorous 
gestures.  There  is  the  best  of  authority  for  say 
ing  that  Mr.  Blaine  did  not  address  the  Finance 
Committee  on  the  subject  at  any  time.  On  one 
occasion  he  did  express  himself  informally  - 
but  energetically  —  to  some  senators  in  the  room 
of  the  Appropriations  Committee,  when  the 
committee  was  not  in  session,  and  accidentally 
struck  his  hat ;  and  the  newspaper  correspond 
ents  invented  the  rest  of  the  story. 

Many  agreements  were  made  with  foreign 
governments  under  the  reciprocity  provisions 
of  the  McKinley  act.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more 
accurate  to  say  that  many  such  governments 


332  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

greatly  reduced  their  tariffs  on  American  goods 
in  order  to  avoid  the  penalty  of  a  duty  on  their 
own  produce.  In  some  cases  their  imports  from 
the  United  States  were  increased  largely.  In 
other  cases  little  or  no  benefit  to  this  country 
ensued.  But  in  truth  the  scheme  was  not  fairly 
tried.  Less  than  a  year  after  the  conclusion  of 
the  second  of  the  so-called  reciprocity  treaties, 
the  success  of  the  Democrats  at  the  presidential 
election  of  1892  sealed  the  doom  of  the  policy. 
They  had  denounced  the  system  as  a  "shar 
were  expected  to  discontinue  it,  and  did  so. 
Statistics,  often  and  often  adduced  to  show  the 
failure  of  the  policy,  prove  nothing.  The  ar 
rangements  with  the  countries  of  Central  and 
South  America  made  many  agricultural  and 
manufactured  goods  free  of  duty,  and  reduced 
the  duty  on  many  other  such  goods  from  one 
quarter  to  one  half.  It  surely  requires  more  than 
an  exhibit  of  commercial  tables  showing  that 
in  many,  even  in  most,  cases  American  exports 
to  those  countries  did  not  increase  during  the 
two  or  three  years  the  arrangements  were  in 
force,  to  demonstrate  that  the  policy  would  not 
have  been  of  great  advantage  to  the  trade  of 
this  country.  Who,  for  example,  would  venture 
to  maintain  that  an  agreement  by  Brazil  to  ad 
mit  American  cotton  goods  at  seventy-five  per 
cent,  of  the  duty  charged  on  English,  French, 


AGAIN   SECRETARY   OF   STATE      333 

and  German  piece  goods,  would  be  worthless 
to  American  manufacturers,  and  to  their  em 
ployes  ? 

The  opposition  to  the  "treaties"  was  purely 
political,  and  had  no  other  basis  than  the  fact 
that  the  arrangement  for  an  increase  of  the  ex 
port  trade  interfered  in  no  way  whatever  with 
the  protection  to  American  industry  which  it 
was  one  of  the  avowed  purposes  of  the  McKinley 
act  to  secure. 


XI 

THE   LAST   YEARS 

IN  the  conduct  of  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  coun 
try,  both  in  the  matters  mentioned  and  in  other 
less  important  and  less  perplexing  business,  the 
Secretary  of  State  seems  to  have  had  the  full 
support  of  the  President.  If  any  differences  of 
opinion  between  them  occurred,  the  grave  has 
closed  over  them  and  they  will  never  be  revealed. 
But  it  is  necessary  to  consider,  in  a  spirit  of  char 
ity  to  both,  their  personal  relations  to  eacji  other, 
which  ended  in  alienation,  and  in  the  abrupt 
termination  of  Mr.  Elaine's  public  life. 

The  position  of  Mr.  Elaine  in  the  cabinet  of 
General  Harrison  was  from  the  beginning  quite 
different  from  that  which  he  had  occupied  under 
President  Garfield.  In  the  one  case  the  two  men, 
President  and  Secretary,  were  bosom  friends. 
Elaine  was  free  —  if  the  relations  between  them 
had  not  been  what  they  were,  one  would  almost 
say  too  free  —  with  his  advice.  Garfield  relied 
much  on  his  Secretary  of  State,  saw  questions 
with  his  eyes,  adopted  his  measures,  appointed 
to  office  the  men  whom  he  selected.  Harrison 
was  built  upon  a  different  model.  It  is  not  neces- 


THE    LAST   YEARS  335 

sary  to  suppose,  and  it  would  not  be  reasonable 
to  suppose,  that  his  attitude  toward  Blaine  was 
ever  such  that  the  word  jealousy  describes  it. 
Nor  would  it  be  fair  even  to  suggest  that  in  any 
of  his  acts  or^omissions  anything  like  a  purpose 
to  let  Blai^ie  "know  his  place"  actuated  him. 
The  mention  of  these  suggestions  her^  is  made 
simply  because  they  have  been  put  forward  by 
some  of  the  too  sensitive  friends  of  Blaine,  and 
because. they  were  used  during  the  whole  of 
Harrison's  administration  by  mischief-makers 
who  were  endeavoring  to  embroil  the  two  men 
and  to  drive  Blaine  from  the  cabinet. 

It  is  certain  that  Blaine  never  expected  to 
wield  in  Harrison's  official  family  the  influence 
he  had  exerted  in  Garfield's.  Yet  in  all  proba 
bility  he  did  expect  more  than  he  received. 
Harrison  evidently  meant  to  be  President  and 
to  have  the  decision  in  all  matters  which  he  de 
sired  to  decide.  In  a  great  many  cases  he  re 
jected  Elaine's  selections  for  offices  in  his  own 
department.  The  most  conspicuous  example, 
although  by  no  means  the  most  important,  was 
the  rejection  of  Blaine's  heart's  desire,  the  ap 
pointment  of  his  son  Walker  as  Assistant  Secre 
tary  of  State.  Nevertheless  the  President  did 
make  the  young  man  Solicitor  for  the  Depart 
ment  of  State,  and  thus  Walker  was  enabled  to 
be  at  his  father's  right  hand. 


336  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

No  complaint  came  from  Mr.  Blaine  that  he 
was  unfairly  treated  or  that  his  position  was  hu 
miliating.  He  was  forced  to  tell  those  who  soli 
cited  his  influence  to  obtain  positions,  that  he  did 
not  possess  such  influence,  and  in  many  cases  he 
defended  the  action  of  the  President.  For  he  ex 
plained  th#t,  owing  to  his  own  long  prominence 
in  public  life  and  the  devotion  of  his  friends, 
hosts  of  persons  felt  that  they  had  claims  upon 
him;  but  that  it  was  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  President  Harrison  would  pay  Secretary 
Elaine's  political  debts.  In  short,  the  situation 
was  accepted  by  both,  without  apology  on  the 
part  of  the  one,  without  grievance  on  the  part  of 
the  other.  Such  a  condition  of  affairs  might  have 
continued  to  the  end  of  the  administration  but 
for  certain  untoward  events. 

In  the  summer  of  1889  the  President  visited 
Maine  and  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Blaine  at  Bar 
Harbor.  Their  personal  relations  were  most 
cordial,  but  the  busybodies  of  the  hostile  press, 
whose  omniscience  usually  presents  itself  in  the 
form  of  mind-reading,  had  already  begun  to  re 
present  the  case  otherwise.  The  President  was 
jealous,  some  of  them  intimated,  of  Elaine's 
prominence  as  a  leader,  and  was  inclined  to 
snub  him.  Blaine  chafed,  reported  others,  under 
the  humiliation  put  upon  him.  The  truth  was 
suggested  by  Mr.  Blaine  himself,  to  the  present 


THE    LAST   YEARS  337 

writer,  who  visited  him  a  few  days  afterward, 
when  he  said  that  those  who  told  such  tales 
should  have  seen  the  President  and  himself  in 
their  familiar  intercourse,  during  those  days  of 
General  Harrison's  visit. 

A  few  months  later  two  exceedingly  heavy 
blows  fell  upon  Mr.  Elaine  in  quick  succession, 
and  wounded  him  in  the  tenderest  spot.  On  the 
15th  of  January,  1890,  his  oldest  and  his  beloved 
son  Walker  died,  after  an  illness  of  five  days. 
Precisely  a  fortnight  later  his  oldest  daughter 
Alice,  Mrs.  Coppinger,  was  stricken,  and  she 
too  died  on  the  2d  of  February.  Those  only  who 
knew  the  height  and  depth  of  the  father's  love 
for  his  children,  and  his  pride  in  the  young  man 
who  gave  promise  of  a  brilliant  public  career 
can  measure  his  grief.  He  sought  relief  in  hard 
work,  but  the  world  was  greatly  changed.  He 
had  known  defeat  and  disappointment;  now 
tragedy  entered  into  his  life. 

It  is  impossible  —  it  would  be  improper  even  if 
it  were  possible  —  to  trace  to  causes  and  to  par 
ticular  incidents  the  gradual  change  in  the  atti 
tude  of  the  President  and  the  Secretary  toward 
each  other.  But  it  may  not  be  unfair  to  Mr. 
Elaine's  memory  to  suggest  that  he  became  less 
and  less  the  confidential  friend  and  ready  ad 
viser  of  the  President,  and  more  and  more  the 
cool  and  distant  official,  as  his  bodily  powers 


338  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

failed,  and  that  the  two  changes  stood  to  each 
other  in  the  relation  of  effect  and  cause.  It  may 
not  be  unfair  to  the  President  to  suggest  that  the 
alteration  of  his  Secretary's  demeanor  seemed  a 
confirmation  of  the  malign  insinuations  of  men 
who  were  really  friendly  to  neither  but  were  per 
sistently  hostile  to  Elaine,  that  the  Secretary  was 
at  heart  disloyal  to  his  chief.  Much  was  made 
at  the  time  of  an  incident  —  a  request  for  a  cer 
tain  appointment  which  General  Harrison  posi 
tively  refused  to  make  —  as  the  true  cause  of 
the  final  breach  between  the  two  men.  Into  the 
circumstances  of  that  affair  it  is  not  necessary 
or  expedient  to  enter.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
request  was  one  that  might  properly  be  made, 
and  that  the  President  had  strong,  and,  to  himself, 
sufficient  reasons  for  his  refusal  to  grant  it.  Al 
though  it  did  constitute  a  personal,  a  family 
grievance,  the  alienation  had  begun  before  the 
incident  occurred,  and  the  breaking  off  of  official 
and  personal  relations  did  not  take  place  until 
some  time  afterward.  Therefore  it  is  evident 
that  too  great  importance  has  been  attached  to 
it  as  a  cause  of  the  breach. 

Mr.  Elaine's  health  was  undermined.  His 
long  years  of  hard  work  and  of  harassing  con 
flict  had  told  upon  him.  The  erect  form  was 
bowed,  the  once  full  face  and  brilliant  eye  showed 
signs  of  premature  age.  His  intellectual  powers 


THE    LAST    YEARS  339 

exhibited  no  symptoms  of  declining,  but  there 
was  an  indefinable  change  in  him  which  more 
and  more  affected  his  judgment.  It  now  became 
unfortunate  that  he  had  all  his  life  been  accus 
tomed  to  resolve  upon  his  own  course  of  conduct 
and  to  act  upon  his  resolution,  sure  that  he  was 
right  although  his  friends  might  advise  him  to 
adopt  a  different  course.  As  his  power  to  fore 
cast  results  gradually  diminished,  the  results 
of  error  became  more  injurious.  Had  he  been 
the  man  he  was  even  at  the  beginning  of  his 
second  term  as  Secretary  of  State,  the  melan 
choly  events  of  the  last  year  of  his  life  could  not 
have  occurred. 

Another  presidential  canvass  approached. 
Many  influential  Republicans  besought  him  to 
become  a  candidate  once  more.  Whatever  may 
afterward  have  been  his  wish,  his  purpose  in  the 
winter  and  spring  of  1892  was  inflexibly  against 
accepting  a  nomination.  As  early  as  February  6 
in  that  year  he  wrote  to  the  chairman  of  the  Re 
publican  National  Committee  that  he  was  not  a 
candidate  and  that  his  name  would  not  go  be 
fore  the  convention.  Several  months  later,  within 
a  month  of  his  abrupt  resignation  of  his  office, 
he  said  to  the  present  writer,  in  the  privacy  of 
his  own  home,  —  not  to  a  politician  but  to  a  per 
sonal  friend,  "  The  truth  is,  I  do  not  want  that 
office.  When  the  American  people  choose  a 


340  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

President  they  require  him  to  remain  awake 
four  years.  I  have  come  to  a  time  of  life  when  I 
need  my  sleep.  Now,"  he  added,  "I  like  my 
present  office.  I  enjoy  it  and  would  like  to  con 
tinue  in  it." 

An  incident  which  occurred  about  this  time 
shows  both  his  deplorable  physical  state  and 
the  way  in  which  that  condition  affected  his 
mind.  At  a  cabinet  meeting  he  rose  suddenly 
from  his  seat  and  left  the  room.  The  President 
and  Elaine's  colleagues,  who  had  half  antici 
pated  a  breach,  fancied  that  Blaine  had  taken 
sudden  offence  or  a  sudden  resolution,  and 
looked  at  one  another  a  moment  in  silence.  Then 
Mr.  Elkins,  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  lifelong 
friend  of  Blaine,  followed  him  to  ascertain  the 
cause  of  his  abrupt  departure.  He  found  that 
Blaine  was  taken  ill  and  was  on  the  point  of 
collapse.  He  took  him  home  in  his  carriage. 
On  the  way  Blaine,  who  thought  he  was  at 
the  point  of  death,  requested  Elkins  to  assure 
the  President  of  his  confidence,  and  of  his  wish 
that  he  should  be  nominated  for  another  term. 
But  he  recovered,  and  unfortunately,  in  his  weak 
state,  he  fell,  so  far  as  a  man  of  his  stamp  could 
fall,  under  the  influence  of  others  than  the  old 
friends  and  staunch  supporters  who  had  stood 
by  him  in  prosperity  and  adversity,  when  he 
was  assailed  by  calumny  as  well  as  when  he  re- 


THE    LAST   YEARS  341 

ceived  the  adulations  of  great  throngs  of  ad 
mirers. 

On  the  4th  of  June,  1892,  James  G.  Elaine 
sent  to  the  President  a  brief  note,  couched  in 
the  most  formal  language,  resigning  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State.  There  was  not  in  it  a  word 
of  explanation,  nor  a  word  of  regret,  nor  a  word 
of  allusion  to  past  or  present  personal  relations 
between  himself  and  the  President.  The  reply  of 
General  Harrison,  in  which  he  accepted  the  resig 
nation,  was  equally  cold  and  formal.  The  most 
ardent  friend  of  Mr.  Elaine  would  find  it  difficult 
to  assign  a  reason  why  it  should  have  been  other 
wise,  why  the  President  should  have  been  in  the 
least  degree  effusive  when  Mr.  Elaine  was  not. 
It  must  be  that  both  men  were  conscious  that 
these  two  curt 'notes  marked  the  end  of  a  long 
and  most  brilliant  career.  We  have  all  seen  upon 
the  stage  plays  in  which  the  most  stirring  pas 
sions  of  the  human  heart  were  represented  in 
strong  action  and  in  excited,  even  violent  lan 
guage  ;  but  when  the  curtain  falls  on  the  last  act 
it  hides  from  view  the  solitary,  silent,  motionless 
figure  of  the  hero  of  the  drama.  May  we  not 
liken  the  close  of  Mr.  Elaine's  public  life,  marked 
by  many  a  startling  and  spectacular  scene,  to  the 
end  of  such  a  play,  where  silence  adds  intensity 
to  the  dramatic  power  of  the  situation  ?  No  other 
public  man  in  American  history  quitted  the  stage 


342  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

as  he  did.  There  have  been  cabinet  ministers 
who  were  abruptly  dismissed;  and  scores  of 
others  have  resigned  for  one  cause  or  another. 
In  no  other  case,  when  questions  of  public  policy 
were  in  no  wise  involved,  has  a  secretary  offered 
his  resignation  with  such  curtness  of  phrase  or 
seen  his  retirement  acquiesced  in  without  a  word 
of  personal  or  official  regret. 

The  4th  of  June  fell  on  Saturday.  The  Repub 
lican  National  Convention  was  to  meet  on  Tues 
day,  the  7th.  Mr.  Blaine  left  Washington  at 
once  for  Maine,  but  did  not  proceed  there  di 
rectly.  He  made  a  stop  in  Boston  and  there,  at  a 
hotel,  watched  the  proceedings  of  the  conven 
tion  with  the  utmost  eagerness.  So  far  as  is 
known,  no  communication  whatever  passed  be 
tween  him  and  any  of  those  who  at  any  time  had 
been  his  confidential  political  managers.  His 
son  Emmons,  who  was  present  at  Minneapolis 
as  an  interested  observer  of  events,  was  unable 
to  ascertain  what  were  his  father's  wishes.  In 
fact,  no  one  knew  then  or  will  ever  know  the  ex 
planation  of  his  conduct.  His  resignation,  his 
excited  observation  of  the  proceedings,  and  his 
silence  when  he  knew  that,  in  spite  of  his  pro 
hibition,  his  name  was  to  be  presented,  all  sug 
gest  that  he  had  changed  his  mind  and  desired 
the  nomination.  On  the  other  hand  his  principle 
that  he  would  not  run  again  unless  the  sponta- 


THE  LAST  YEARS  343 

neous,  unanimous  choice  of  the  convention;  his 
repugnance  for  the  office,  so  frankly  and  fre 
quently  expressed  not  long  before,  and  his  con 
sciousness  —  for  he  must  have  been  conscious 
of  it  —  of  the  failure  of  his  powers,  —  all  these 
indicate  that  his  overpowering  interest  in  what 
was  going  on  at  Minneapolis  did  not  imply  such 
a  change  of  purpose.  For  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  in  such  a  crisis,  he  did  not  declare  his  pur 
pose,  and  what  he  thought  and  wished  will  never 
be  known. 

We  shall  not  be  far  out  of  the  way  if  we  attrib 
ute  his  vagaries  to  the  same  cause  that  led  to 
his  alienation  from  the  President,  his  physical 
condition.  One  who  was  a  close  associate  of  Mr. 
Elaine  during  more  than  fifteen  years  of  his  pub 
lic  life  assures  the  writer  that  at  this  period  he 
was  subject  to  temporary  delusions.  On  more 
than  one  occasion  Mr.  Blaine  described  to  him 
scenes  in  which  the  President  and  himself  were 
supposed  to  have  been  the  actors,  which  could 
never  have  occurred,  and  which  the  Blaine  of 
former  times  could  never  even  have  imagined. 
It  was  on  this  subject  only  that  his  mind  was 
affected  by  delusions.  In  regard  to  everything 
else  his  intellect  was  as  keen  as  ever.  Indeed,  no 
one  save  a  few  confidential  friends,  perhaps  no 
member  of  his  own  family,  was  aware  of  this 
manifestation  of  the  progress  of  mortal  disease. 


344  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

General  Harrison  was  nominated  for  reelec 
tion  on  the  first  roll-call.  He  had  almost  three 
times  as  many  votes  as  were  given  for  Blaine, 
who  received  barely  one  sixth  of  a  vote  more 
than  did  Major  McKinley.  Blaine  dictated  a 
brief  but  stirring  appeal  to  Republicans  to  close 
up  the  ranks  and  unite  in  an  earnest  support  of 
the  ticket,  and  resumed  his  journey  to  Bar  Har 
bor.  He  did  not  telegraph  congratulations  to 
Harrison.  The  omission  was  noted  as  evidence 
of  his  deep  dissatisfaction  with  the  action  of  the 
convention. 

Hardly  had  he  reached  his  summer  home  when 
another  crushing  blow  fell  upon  him.  His  son 
Emmons,  the  only  survivor  of  his  older  children, 
who  had  been  prominent  in  the  proceedings  at 
Minneapolis,  full  of  life  and  vigor,  was  taken 
suddenly  ill,  and  died  on  the  18th  of  June,  only 
a  week  after  the  close  of  the  convention.  The 
first  intelligence  his  parents  had  of  his  illness 
was  contained  in  the  telegram  announcing  his 
death.  Mr.  Blaine's  life  was  bound  up  in  his  two 
manly  sons.  The  death  of  Walker  was  like  cut 
ting  off  his  right  hand;  but  Emmons  did  his  best 
to  fill  the  place  of  two  sons.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  lovable  of  men,  and  his  untimely  death 
bereaved  not  only  his  parents  but  a  young  wife 
also,  and  left  his  infant  son  an  orphan.  In  the 
face  of  such  a  grievous  affliction  partisan  ani- 


THE  LAST  YEARS  345 

mosity  was  forgotten.  The  Democratic  National 
Convention,  which  was  in  session  at  the  time  of 
Emmons  Elaine's  death,  paused  in  its  proceed 
ings  to  pass  a  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the 
old  antagonist  of  the  party. 

The  summer  and  autumn  of  1892  were  passed 
for  the  most  part  at  Bar  Harbor.  Mr.  Elaine's 
share  in  the  canvass  of  that  year  was  not  con 
spicuous,  but  he  did  all  that  his  growing  feeble 
ness  permitted.  He  wrote  a  strong  letter  for 
publication,  setting  forth  the  three  great  issues, 
as  he  regarded  them,  of  the  campaign,  —  tariff, 
reciprocity,  and  a  sound  currency.  On  the  14th 
of  October  he  made  his  only  speech  during  the 
campaign,  and  the  last  public  speech  he  ever 
delivered,  at  Ophir  Farm,  in  Westchester  County, 
New  York,  the  country  residence  of  the  Hon. 
Whitelaw  Reid,  the  Republican  candidate  for 
Vice  President.  There  was  a  great  outpouring 
of  the  people  from  all  the  surrounding  country, 
including  many  uniformed  political  clubs.  After 
a  dinner  given  in  his  honor  by  Mr.  Reid,  with  a 
notable  gathering  of  prominent  men  as  his  fellow 
guests,  there  was  a  serenade,  and  then  a  speech 
by  Elaine.  It  was  brief,  but  the  applause  of  the 
assembled  company  at  his  appearance,  and  dur 
ing  and  after  his  address,  proved  how  strong  a 
hold  he  had  upon  the  affections  of  the  people  of 
that  neighborhood,  —  an  experience  which  would 


346  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

have  been  repeated  in  almost  any  county  of  any 
state  in  the  Union.  The  only  other  act  of  partici 
pation  in  the  canvass  was  the  preparation  of  an 
article  on  the  political  situation  for  the  "  North 
American  Review,"  for  November,  1892.  In 
letter,  speech,  and  magazine  article  the  method 
was  the  method  of  the  Elaine  who  had  been 
editor,  congressman,  speaker,  senator,  campaign 
orator,  presidential  candidate,  and  Secretary  of 
State.  If  one  detects  a  lack  of  the  terse  vigor  of 
his  utterances  in  the  days  of  his  greatest  mental 
power,  let  us  not  forget  with  what  desperate 
earnestness,  with  what  effort  to  overcome  physi 
cal  weakness,  with  what  anguish  of  personal  be 
reavement,  he  was  striving  to  fill  his  old  place, 
and  to  drive  away  the  dread  enemy  who  was 
soon  to  conquer,  as  he  conquers  us  all. 

Back  to  Washington,  and  for  the  last  time. 
A  winter  to  be  passed  in  southern  California  was 
•planned,  but  the  plan  was  not  to  be  realized. 
Mr.  Elaine  was  very  feeble,  but  he  did  not,  as 
in  the  days  of  his  strength,  succumb  to  slight 
ailments.  On  the  Sunday  before  election  he 
attended  the  Church  of  the  Covenant,  partook 
of  the  communion,  and  walked  home  in  com 
pany  with  President  Harrison.  If  there  had  been 
antagonism  between  them  it  had  disappeared, 
and  they  were  again  on  the  friendliest  terms 
with  each  other.  Soon  afterward  Mr.  Elaine 


THE  LAST  YEARS  347 

caught  a  severe  cold,  took  to  his  bed,  and  from 
that  time  until  the  end  came,  the  complication 
of  disorders  that  had  previously  been  sapping 
his  vitality  slowly  made  rapid  progress.  The 
nation  was  an  interested  watcher  by  the  bedside 
of  the  sufferer.  A  corps  of  newspaper  corre 
spondents  kept  vigil  night  and  day  within  sight 
of  his  residence  on  Lafayette  Square,  to  catch 
the  slightest  intelligence  regarding  his  condition. 
Those  last  days  were  days  of  quiet*  peaceful, 
cheerful  resignation.  He  had  several  attacks  of 
great  weakness  from  which  he  rallied  each  time 
with  diminishing  vitality.  He  breathed  his  last, 
surrounded  by  all  the  members  of  his  family,  in 
the  forenoon  of  January  27,  1893,  within  four 
days  of  completing  his  sixty-third  year. 

His  death  was  recognized  as  a  national  event. 
The  President  issued  a  proclamation  announ 
cing  it,  in  which  he  said  that  Mr.  Elaine's  "  devo 
tion  to  the  public  interests,  his  marked  ability, 
and  his  exalted  patriotism  have  won  for  him  the 
gratitude  and  affection  of  his  countrymen  and 
the  admiration  of  the  world.  In  the  various  pur 
suits  of  legislation,  diplomacy,  and  literature  his 
genius  has  added  new  lustre  to  American  citi 
zenship."  He  directed  that  all  the  departments 
of  the  executive  branch  of  the  government  should 
be  closed  on  the  day  of  the  funeral.  The  cere 
mony  was  private,  in  the  sense  that  it  was  con- 


348  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

ducted  wholly  by  friends  of  the  family,  that  no 
official  or  other  delegations  were  present,  and 
that  there  was  a  complete  absence  of  pomp  or 
display.  But  the  Church  of  the  Covenant,  where 
the  exercises  took  place,  was  thronged  by  a  dis 
tinguished  company  of  Mr.  Elaine's  friends  and 
political  associates,  including  the  President,  all 
the  members  of  his  cabinet,  and  many  members 
of  both  Houses  of  Congress.  The  open  space  in 
front  of  the  church  was  rilled  by  thousands  of  men 
and  women  who  waited,  silent  and  respectful, 
during  the  ceremonies,  watched  the  procession 
as  it  took  its  slow  way  to  the  burial,  and  then 
mournfully  dispersed.  The  body  of  the  dead 
statesman  was  laid  to  rest,  beside  those  of 
his  son  Walker  and  his  daughter  Alice,  in  the 
family  burial  lot  in  Oak  Hill  Cemetery  on 
Georgetown  Heights. 


XII 

THE   MAN   AND   THE    STATESMAN 

DISTANCE  in  time  is  needed  to  give  such  per 
spective  as  will  enable  the  biographer  to  assign 
to  a  public  man  his  true  place  in  history,  and  to 
represent  him  in  correct  proportions  and  magni 
tude  as  compared  with  other  men,  his  predeces 
sors  and  contemporaries.  Whatever,  therefore, 
may  be  said  here  as  to  Mr.  Elaine's  influence 
upon  the  politics  of  his  time  and  the  history  of 
his  country  —  its  extent,  its  quality,  and  its  dura 
bility  —  must  be  read  with  all  allowance  for  the 
fact  that  at  the  time  it  is  written  little  more  than 
a  decade  has  elapsed  since  his  death. 

But  a  man  himself  may  be  pictured  even  dur 
ing  his  lifetime,  truly  in  respect  of  his  outward 
form  and  appearance,  less  accurately  in  respect 
of  his  mental  traits,  his  character,  aims,  motives, 
and  methods.  When  one  has  to  deal  with  a  per 
sonage  over  whom  controversy  raged  as  it  did 
over  Elaine,  almost  every  man's  view  will  be 
distorted.  His  adherents  exaggerate  his  virtues 
and  powers  no  less  than  those  who  take  another 
view  of  his  character  magnify  every  fault,  and 
even  discover  some  faults  that  others  cannot  per- 


350  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

ceive.  Death  does  not  close  the  controversies 
regarding  such  a  man.  Nevertheless,  the  mate 
rial  facts  upon  which  a  sure  judgment  may  be 
based  are  more  abundant  and  accessible  as  soon 
as  the  life  has  ended  than  they  are  afterward  ; 
and  consequently  a  truer  estimate  of  the  man, 
apart  from  his  service  and  achievement,  may 
then  be  made  by  one  who  is  able  to  divest  him 
self  of  partisanship,  than  at  'any  subsequent 
period.  It  would  be  uncandid  on  the  part  of  the 
present  writer  were  he  to  pretend  that  he  pos 
sesses  the  impartiality  and  the  passionless  judg 
ment  that  qualify  him  to  make  the  final  estimate 
of  this  man  and  of  his  career.  Such  bias  as  a 
lifelong  friendship,  sometimes  amounting  to  in 
timacy,  necessarily  gives,  must  be  frankly  ad 
mitted.  There  are,  nevertheless,  many  things  to 
be  said  of  him  before  we  begin  to  reach  any  sub 
jects  of  controversy. 

First  of  all  as  to  the  man  himself,  apart  from 
his  public  life.  By  no  means  puritanical  or  aus 
tere  in  his  habits,  his  private  life  was  not  merely 
free  from  blame  but  was  conspicuously  pure 
and  clean.  Neither  the  great  nor  the  little  vices 
to  which  public  men  too  often  succumb  in  the 
whirl  and  excitement  of  Washington  society, 
offered  any  temptation  to  him.  His  house  was 
his  home  not  less  at  the  national  capital  than  it 
was  at  Augusta.  He  was  not  a  club  man ;  he  had 


THE    MAN   AND   THE    STATESMAN     351 

no  taste  for  what  is  known  as  conviviality.  He 
never  used  tobacco.  Until  the  later  years  of  his 
life  he  rarely  tasted  wine,  and  even  then  he  tasted 
rather  than  drank  it.  These  facts  are  mentioned 
not  as  implying  self-denial  and  self-control,  for 
his  abstinence  implied  nothing  of  the  sort.  But 
they  do  exhibit  a  man  who  never  sought  in  nar 
cotics  or  intoxicants  relief  from  the  tremendous 
strain  to  which  for  many  years  he  was  sub 
jected. 

He  was  domestic  in  his  habits  to  an  extraordi 
nary  degree,  was  never  so  happy  or  so  exuberant 
in  his  spirits  as  when  he  was  with  his  family,  of 
which  he  was  the  adored  and  the  adoring  head, 
and  was  attached  to  all  of  his  own  and  Mrs. 
Elaine's  relatives,  from  the  grandfathers  to  the 
infants  in  arms.  In  the  other  relations  in  which 
one  judges  of  a  man  as  a  member  of  a  social 
community  he  was  not  less  irreproachable.  No 
man  was  a  kinder  neighbor  than  he,  or  more 
helpful  and  sympathetic  toward  all  with  whom 
he  was  brought  in  contact.  He  was  a  liberal 
giver  to  charities,  a  generous  supporter  of  the 
churches  he  attended,  a  buyer  who  did  not  bar 
gain,  a  prompt  payer  of  his  debts.  In  early  man 
hood  he  became  a  member  of  the  Congrega 
tional  Church  in  Augusta,  and  his  name  was 
borne  on  its  rolls  as  of  one  in  good  standing,  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  His  religion  was  not  flaunted 


352  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

in  the  faces  of  those  who  conversed  with  him, 
but  it  was  deep  and  sincere. 

As  to  the  charm  of  his  personality  there  is  no 
dispute.  Physically  stalwart  and  well  propor 
tioned,  having  a  large  head  set  upon  broad  shoul 
ders,  and  prominent  features  dominated  by 
brilliant  and  piercing  eyes,  he  had  a  presence 
that  could  never  fail  to  attract  attention  to  him 
self  in  any  company.  The  "  magnetism  "  about 
which  so  much  has  been  said,  and  which  was 
felt  as  soon  as  one  took  his  hand  or  heard  his 
voice,  is  indefinable,  and  comes  no  one  knows 
whence.  Many  a  man  who  could  never  have  been 
persuaded  to  vote  for  him  fell  under  the  spell  of 
it  at  the  first  meeting.  It  was  not  the  acquired 
art  of  the  politician,  establishing  a  bond  between 
himself  and  those  who  might  be  useful  to  him, 
great  as  was  the  accession  of  popularity  which 
he  owed  to  his  singular  power  over  men.  For  it 
was  his  nature  to  be  drawn  toward  every  man 
and  woman  whom  he  met,  and  to  make  friends 
with  them.  He  would  enter  into  the  interests  of 
a  boy,  hold  him  by  the  hand,  and  question  him 
about  his  school  and  his  studies,  as  readily  as  he 
would  attach  a  political  magnate  to  his  fortunes, 
and  with  as  much  or  as  little  afterthought  as  to 
the  consequences  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
It  was  simply  his  habit  to  be  friendly  with  every 
body,  and  his  hunger  for  friendship  was  satis- 


THE    MAN    AND    THE    STATESMAN     353 

fied  by  his  wonderful  faculty  for  making  friends. 
There  are  two  or  three  instances  —  hardly  more 
—  of  his  having  cherished  animosity.  In  each 
case  he  had  received  injuries  that  the  most  ami 
able  man  could  not  forgive.  But  there  were  many 
other  instances  of  his  having  overlooked  offences 
that  to  an  ordinary  observer  seem  quite  as  great 
as  those,  and  of  his  having  come  to  terms  of  in 
timate  friendship  with  the  offenders.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  name  the  public  man  of  whom  so 
much  evil  has  been  spoken  who  spoke  so  little 
evil  of  others. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  account  for  the  affection  he 
inspired  in  persons  who  never  even  saw  him,  as  it 
is  to  understand  his  power  over  those  who  knew 
him.  His  magnetic  field  extended  far  beyond  his 
personal  acquaintance,  beyond  those  whom  the 
sound  of  his  voice  could  reach.  To  those  who 
never  were  affected  by  it,  still  more  to  the  genera 
tions  that  are  to  come,  the  language  that  might 
be  used  to  describe  his  almost  magical  influence 
will  seem  extravagant  and  fanciful.  But  how 
can  any  one  explain  the  frenzy  of  the  enthusiasm 
manifested  on  many  occasions,  when  the  name  of 
Blaine  was  shouted  by  thousands  of  men  who 
had  never  seen  him  ?  There  was  in  their  accla 
mation  a  note  of  personal  affection  and  devotion 
that  is  missing  from  the  chord  when  one  is  greeted 
who  is  merely  an  admired  political  leader. 


354  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

But  he  was  also  a  trusted  as  well  as  a  beloved 
leader,  and  had  many  and  rare  gifts  for  such 
a  station  :  a  thorough  groundwork  of  education 
in  the  broad  sense;  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  history  of  the  government  of  his  coun 
try,  perhaps  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  man  of 
his  time;  a  memory  stored  with  all  the  material 
necessary  to  a  statesman,  —  minute,  accurate,  and 
ever  ready  to  yield  its  treasures;  and  a  quick 
and  sure  perception  as  to  the  effect  of  a  measure 
not  only  upon  public  opinion  but  in  its  larger 
and  remoter  consequences.  These  furnished  him 
his  stock  in  trade;  and  a  facility  and  felicity  of 
utterance,  and  resourcefulness  in  debate,  most 
unusual  even  among  the  practised  orators  who 
were  his  associates  in  public  life,  made  him, 
whether  on  the  stump  or  in  any  body  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  a  speaker  to  whom  it  was  impos 
sible  not  to  listen,  a  leader  who  was  sure  of  a 
multitude  of  followers. 

His  quickness  at  repartee  and  his  aptness  at 
finding  and  exposing  the  weak  point  in  an  ad 
versary's  argument  gave  intellectual  pleasure  to 
those  who  heard  him  in  debate.  His  detractors 
used  to  say  that  Blaine  was  "too  smart,"  which 
was  a  compliment  to  his  skill  as  a  dialectician, 
although  they  did  not  so  intend  it.  For  whereas, 
in  urging  a  measure  which  he  wished  to  promote, 
he  was  accustomed  to  rest  his  argument  on  broad, 


THE    MAN    AND    THE    STATESMAN     355 

fundamental  principles,  when  opposing  mea 
sures  he  was  frequently  able  to  divert  discussion 
to  collateral  and  unimportant  issues.  Thus,  par 
ticularly  when  contending  with  a  majority  sure 
to  outvote  him,  he  could  disconcert  his  oppo 
nents  by  a  bold  attack  upon  a  point  not  strictly 
relevant,  and  thus  score  a  personal  victory. 

Elaine's  ability  to  feel  the  public  pulse  did  not 
tempt  him  to  be  shifty  and  uncertain  in  his  po 
litical  course.  In  all  essential  matters  he  was 
consistent  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his 
career.  Slavery  was  the  grand  issue  before  the 
country  when  he  came  upon  the  political  stage. 
He  opposed  slavery  and  the  system  associated 
with  the  institution,  to  the  last.  After  emancipa 
tion  he  espoused  and  upheld  the  policies  which 
±he  extinction  of  slavery  seemed  to  him  logically 
to  demand.  Mistaken  or  not,  he  approved  the 
military  reconstruction  of  the  seceded  states, 
and  the  grant  of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  freed- 
men.  He  disapproved  and  condemned  the  aban 
donment  of  the  Southern  Republicans,  white  and 
black.  He  held  and  never  ceased  to  hold  that  the 
rights  conferred  upon  the  emancipated  negroes 
should  be  maintained  by  the  power  which  gave 
them.  Yet  he  was  never  a  hater  of  the  South. 
He  withstood  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who  wished  to 
punish  the  "rebels,"  and  who  proposed  to  drag 
them  back  into  the  Union  and  to  keep  them  out 


356  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

at  the  same  time.  Not  at  any  time  a  radical,  he 
always  insisted  that  loyalty  and  an  acceptance 
of  the  principles  and  policies  resulting  from  the 
civil  war  were  an  essential  condition,  if  the  South 
was  to  be  "  let  alone." 

Again,  Elaine  was  a  tariff  man,  —  a  follower 
of  Henry  Clay  and  a  believer  in  the  "American 
system  "  from  boyhood.  From  that  faith  he  never 
wavered.  Here  also,  although  consistent  to  the 
last,  he  was  no  radical.  He  believed  that  excessive 
protection  was  unreasonable  and  harmful,  and 
that  it  weakened  the  defensive  position  of  the 
adherents  of  the  system.  Once,  when  he  was 
Speaker,  he  abandoned  the  tariff  to  its  enemies, 
temporarily,  by  appointing  a  majority  of  tariff 
reformers  to  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
It  was  a  perilous  act,  and  drew  upon  Blaine  the 
denunciation  of  the  extremists.  But  it  probably 
resulted  in  a  postponement  for  many  years  of  the 
revulsion  which  finally  manifested  itself  in  the 
elections  of  1890  and  1892.  In  hundreds  of 
speeches  in  political  campaigns,  and  at  every 
period  of  his  life  when  the  occasion  presented 
itself,  he  showed  himself  to  be  a  stanch  protec 
tionist.  His  name  would  be  included  among  the 
most  conspicuous  of  the  defenders  of  the  system 
were  there  no  other  service  to  his  credit  than  his 
"Paris  message"  of  1887;  and  his  devotion  to 
the  twin  policy  of  reciprocity  was  strikingly  ex- 


THE    MAN    AND   THE    STATESMAN     357 

hibited  in  his  vigorous  intervention  in  behalf  of 
it  when  the  McKinley  bill  was  pending. 

No  question  was  more  important  during  the 
whole  of  Mr.  Elaine's  public  life  than  that  of  the 
currency.  It  arose  in  various  forms  out  of  the 
financial  demoralization  of  the  civil  war  period. 
Here  again,  from  first  to  last,  he  favored  a  rigid 
observance  of  the  obligations  of  the  government 
to  its  creditors  and  the  maintenance  of  an  un 
impaired  standard  of  value.  His  was  the  first 
voice  raised  in  Congress  against  the  heresy  that 
the  five-twenty  bonds  might  be  paid  with  green 
backs,  —  that  an  interest-bearing  debt  might  be 
discharged  by  tendering  to  the  holders  of  it  irre 
deemable,  non-interest-bearing  promises  to  pay. 
He  opposed  inflation  of  the  paper  currency, 
stood  by  the  law  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments,  and  contended  against  the  remone- 
tization  of  the  "dollar  of  the  fathers."  It  is  true 
he  favored,  even  in  1878,  the  free  coinage  of 
silver  at  a  ratio  with  gold  which  he  thought  would 
bring  to  parity  with  each  other  the  bullion  value 
of  the  gold  and  the  silver  dollar.  He  was  troubled 
by  a  constitutional  objection  to  the  disuse  of 
either  gold  or  silver  as  money.  That  objection 
does  not  count  for  much  to-day.  Indeed,  one 
finds  it  not  easy  to  follow  the  reasoning  which 
converts  a  prohibition  upon  the  states  to  make 
anything  but  gold  and  silver  a  legal  tender,  into 


358  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

a  compulsory  precept  upon  the  general  govern 
ment  to  coin  both  metals.  Nevertheless,  many 
men  who  believed  themselves  to  be  unflinching 
advocates  of  "honest  money"  then  held  the 
opinion  that  neither  metal  could  be  constitu 
tionally  demonetized.  If  Mr.  Elaine  faltered 
when  that  question  of  silver  was  pending,  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  compromise  that  would  satisfy 
both  parties  and  injure  neither  debtors  nor  credit 
ors,  it  was  the  only  occasion  when  his  attitude 
was  inconsistent  with  that  which  he  assumed 
when  he  first  attacked  the  five-twenty  bond 
theory  of  Stevens,  Butler,  and  Pendleton. 

The  catalogue  of  political  and  economic  ques 
tions  on  which  Elaine's  course  was  consistent 
throughout  might  be  greatly  extended.  It  would 
include  many  topics  on  which,  as  on  the  tariff, 
and  to  a  less  extent  on  the  currency,  he  found 
strong  opponents  in  his  own  party.  To  mention 
one  only,  he  always  favored  building  up  a  mer 
cantile  marine  by  means  of  subsidies  to  Ameri 
can-built  ships.  To  do  so  seemed  to  him  a  neces 
sary  part  of  any  system  for  extending  the  com 
merce  of  the  United  States.  His  attitude  upon 
this  question  is  referred  to  as  an  illustration  of 
the  fact  that  whenever  there  was  an  opportunity 
to  manifest  national  selfishness,  which  is  the  es 
sential  quality  of  patriotism,  he  showed  himself  a 
firm  believer  in  his  own  country  and  a  stout  de- 


THE    MAN    AND    THE    STATESMAN     359 

fender  of  it.  In  saying  this  there  is  not  the  least 
intention  to  imply  that  those  who  took  another 
view  of  this  or  any  other  question  were  less  pa 
triotic  than  he,  or  that  they  were  less  ready  to 
defend  the  country.  Their  minds  worked  dif 
ferently.  They  favored  different  policies. 

Two  or  three  examples  of  his  activity  in  behalf 
of  an  expansion  of  American  influence  in  the 
world,  where  he  did  not  enjoy  the  united  sup 
port  even  of  his  own  party,  will  show  the  differ 
ence  here  indicated.  As  Secretary  of  State, 
Elaine  endeavored  to  free  the  country  from  the 
entanglement  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  with 
England;  he  tried  to  vindicate~IEe~rigIiFof  fFe 
United  States  to  a  monopoly  of  the  Bering  Sea 
seal  fishery;  he  was  strongly  in  favor  of  an 
American  continental  system,  of  which  the 
United  States  should  be  the  benevolent  and 
pacific  leader;  from  early  manhood  he  favored 
the  acquisition  of  Hawaii.  No  one  would  urge 
that  dissent  from  either  of  these  propositions 
was  unpatriotic.  Indeed  indifference  to  them  all 
was  in  accordance  with  the  traditional  attitude 
of  American  patriots,  who  held  that  this  country 
should  concern  itself  with  the  affairs  of  other 
nations  only  when  compelled  to  do  so.  Mr. 
Elaine's  position  on  these  questions  was  based 
upon  a  different  theory.  It  was  that  which  is 
now  denominated  imperialist  by  those  who  call 


360  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

themselves  anti-imperialists.  Earlier  than  most 
American  public  men  he  felt,  and  more  boldly 
than  others  he  expressed  the  opinion,  that  the 
time  had  come  to  abandon  the  isolation,  and  the 
hermit-like  apathy  to  what  was  going  on  in  the 
world  outside,  which  had  from  the  beginning 
been  the  policy  of  the  government.  The  great 
change  that  has  taken  place  since  the  close  of 
Elaine's  public  life  will  be  seen,  if  we  suggest 
that  what  he  said  and  wrote  tending  in  the  di 
rection  of  national  expansion,  national  self-as 
sertion,  national  participation  in  world -politics, 
vigorous  as  it  was,  and  greatly  as  it  was  in  ad 
vance  of  the  time,  if  said  or  written  by  a  public 
man  to-day,  would  hardly  draw  upon  him  de 
nunciation  as  a  "jingo."  So  Hamilton  was  far 
in  advance  of  his  time  in  his  measures  for  con 
solidating  the  Union;  to-day  there  is  no  school 
of  political  thought  in  America  that  does  not  go 
far  beyond  Hamilton  in  acceptance  of  the  na 
tional  idea. 

It  would  be  unfair  to  those  who  criticised  and 
opposed  Blaine  to  create  the  impression  that 
their  objection  was  in  all  cases  to  the  policies 
and  measures  which  he  advocated.  Many  of 
them  found  fault  with  his  methods,  and  with 
the  manner  in  which  as  Secretary  of  State  he 
handled  subjects,  when  he  was  the  official  spokes 
man  of  the  government.  There  was  not  a  little 


THE    MAN    AND    THE    STATESMAN     361 

justice  in  their  criticisms.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  Blaine  was  irritating  as  a  controversialist, 
and  sometimes  lacking  in  good  judgment.  In 
diplomacy,  patience,  and  courtesy  both  of  tone 
and  of  language,  are  usual  and  expedient.  The 
sharp,  biting  phrases  that  are  used  in  political 
discussion  and  in  parliamentary  debate,  when 
the  speaker  neither  hopes  nor  fears  for  the  re 
sult  of  the  vote  that  is  to  follow,  effect  little  in  a 
diplomatic  despatch.  One  who  reads  the  Bering 
'  Sea  correspondence  must  admire  the  dialectic 
skill  of  Mr.  Blaine,  and  yet  feel  all  the  while 
that  he  was  hurting  his  cause  by  being,  in  the 
phrase  of  his  critics,  "too  smart."  The  object 
to  be  aimed  at  was  not  to  convince  Lord  Salis 
bury  that  he  was  wrong  in  his  interpretation  of 
international  law,  and  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
the  seal  fishery,  but  to  persuade  him  that  the 
interests  of  his  own  country  and  the  world  would 
be  advanced  by  the  conclusion  of  an  agreement 
that  would  result  in  the  protection  of  the  seal 
herd  from  extermination.  This  was  perhaps  the 
most  conspicuous  instance  of  Blaine's  failure 
in  tact  as  a  diplomatist,  although  it  was  not  that 
which  brought  upon  him  the  most  violent  criti 
cism. 

Mr.  Blaine  was  prominent  in  public  affairs 
during  almost  a  generation.  For  fully  half  that 
time  he  was  the  most  prominent  member  of  his 


362  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

own  party,  and  exercised  a  greater  power  over 
the  minds  and  thoughts  of  his  countrymen  than 
was  wielded  by  any  other  person.  Was  his  in 
fluence  permanent  or  transitory?  Is  his  name 
to  be  enrolled  among  the  demigods  of  American 
history,  or  was  his  power  of  such  a  nature  that 
it  will  become  evanescent  as  the  memory  of  his 
personal  magnetism  fades  away  ? 

To  answer  these  questions  we  must  look  fur 
ther  and  deeper  than  at  the  facts  that  lie  upon  the 
surface:  on  the  one  hand,  beyond  his  brilliant 
qualities  of  mind,  beyond  his  long  service  in 
conspicuous  positions,  beyond  the  circumstance 
of  his  extraordinary  reputation  during  his  life 
time  and  the  enthusiastic  admiration  that  was 
felt  for  him;  on  the  other  hand,  beyond  the  ad 
mitted  fact  that,  although  every  great  political 
question  at  issue  between  parties  during  his 
public  life  has  been  settled,  save  only  the  peren 
nial  question  of  the  tariff,  his  name  is  insepa 
rably  connected  with  not  one  of  them. 

It  is  true  that  his  enduring  fame  is  not  to  be 
sought  in  the  domain  of  legislation.  Although 
he  served  in  both  branches  of  Congress  nearly 
eighteen  years  in  all,  he  was  never  in  a  position 
to  exert  a  strong  influence  as  a  leader  in  affirma 
tive  legislation.  He  had  barely  ceased  to  be  re 
garded  as  a  junior  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  when  he  was  chosen  Speaker. 


THE   MAN   AND    THE   STATESMAN     363 

In  that  capacity  he  exercised  great  power  in 
defeating  unwise  measures,  but  was  virtually 
precluded  from  devising  and  initiating  legisla 
tion.  As  a  member  of  the  minority,  after  his 
term  as  Speaker  closed,  he  was  hardly  more 
nearly  powerless  as  a  constructive  statesman 
than  he  was  as  a  newcomer  in  the  Senate,  where 
seniority  counts  for  much.  But  after  all,  the  test 
of  greatness  and  of  political  immortality  which 
is  suggested  by  these  considerations  is  essen 
tially  superficial.  Judged  by  it  alone,  even  so 
illustrious  a  name  as  that  of  Webster  would  be 
struck  from  the  roll. 

Elaine's  influence  during  his  lifetime,  and 
that  which  remains,  was  of  a  broader  and  more 
far-reaching  character  than  can  be  measured 
by  a  consideration  of  the  public  acts  in  which 
he  bore  a  part.  It  was  an  influence  upon  the 
general  tendency  of  the  political  thought  of  his 
countrymen.  It  easily  escapes  observation  be 
cause,  when  the  tendency  has  once  been  estab 
lished,  the  movement  is  progressive,  and  men  are 
too  busy  to  stop  and  inquire  whence  came  the 
impulse  in  the  new  direction.  His  real  work  in 
politics  began  when  he  took  the  office  of  Secre 
tary  of  State.  He  had  won  the  respect  and  ad 
miration  of  millions  in  his  own  party,  and  was 
accepted  as  a  leader  and  an  oracle.  Conse 
quently  when  he  led  the  way  in  the  movement 


364  JAMES  G.   ELAINE 

which  has  changed  completely  the  relation  of 
the  United  States  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  he 
had  an  army  of  followers.  They  took  up  with 
his  ideas,  developed  them,  and  followed  them 
to  their  logical  conclusion. 

Let  us  remember  that  from  early  manhood 
he  was  a  firm  and  outspoken  believer  in  the 
great  destiny  of  his  country.  So,  to  be  sure,  were 
many  others,  most,  indeed,  of  the  patriots  of  all 
times.  But  he  was  also,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
the  first  Secretary  of  State  to  form  and  carry  out 
a  definite  general  forward  policy  which  implied 
the  right  of  the  United  States  to  a  position  of 
leadership  among  nations.  We  may  say,  to  il 
lustrate  his  position,  that  he  was  the  first  Secre 
tary  to  adopt  actively  the  principle  that  the  Mon 
roe  Doctrine  confers  privileges  upon  the  United 
States,  as  much  as  it  imposes  obligations.  That 
his  departure  from  the  traditional  policy  was 
deemed  rash  and  unwise  by  many  most  esti 
mable  men,  that  a  Republican  administration 
reversed  and  cancelled  his  policy,  that  when, 
having  had  another  opportunity,  he  returned  to 
it,  he  thereby  exposed  himself  to  criticism  and 
obloquy  as  having  needlessly  ventured  upon  a 
course  that  might  embroil  the  United  States 
with  other  powers  —  all  this  may  be  admitted. 
Yet  the  very  opposition  which  he  encountered 
and  the  savage  assaults  upon  his  management 


THE    MAN    AND    THE    STATESMAN     365 

of  the  foreign  affairs  only  served  to  strengthen 
him  with  those  who  followed  because  he  led,  and 
to  make  more  intense  the  national  sentiment 
of  which  he  was  the  champion.  When  he  retired 
from  office,  the  work  of  moulding  public  opinion 
had  proceeded  so  far  that  it  has  never  been  un 
done.  The  confidence  which  his  leadership  in 
spired,  and  the  enlarged  view  which  his  policy 
gave  to  the  people  of  the  land,  prepared  them  for 
the  radical  departure  from  the  ways  of  the  fa 
thers  which  resulted  from  the  war  to  make  Cuba 
free  in  1898. 

No  one  would  venture  to  assert  that  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  would  not  have  con 
sented  to  the  expansion  beyond  seas  and  to  a 
colonial  system  if  James  G.  Blaine  had  never 
been  Secretary  of  State.  Nor  could  it  be  safely 
asserted  that  there  would  not  have  been  a  great 
popular  uprising  in  the  North  in  defence  of  the 
Union  in  1861,  if  Webster  had  never  pronounced 
his  great  reply  to  Hayne.  The  philosophical  his 
torian  long  ago  recognized  the  irresistible  effect 
of  Webster's  sonorous  periods,  declaimed  from 
every  school  platform,  instilling  into  the  minds 
of  successive  generations  the  conviction  that 
this  is  an  enduring,  indestructible  nation,  and 
not  a  loosely-bound  federation  of  semi-sovereign 
states.  When  the  time  is  ripe  for  the  inquiry 
how  the  public  sentiment  of  the  American  peo- 


366  JAMES  G.   BLAINE 

pie  was  led  to  accept  joyfully  and  enthusias 
tically  the  functions,  duties,  and  obligations  re 
sulting  from  expansion  beyond  the  continental 
limits,  it  will  be  found  that  the  first  and  strongest 
impulse  in  that  direction  was  due  to  the  national 
self-assertion  contained  in  Mr.  Elaine's  diplo 
matic  correspondence  and  action. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ADAMS,  JOHN  QUINCY,  on 
Russian  jurisdiction  over 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  325. 

Allison,  William  B.,  237. 

American  continental  system, 
Elaine's  agency  in  forming, 

243,  315,  327,  359. 
American  Republics,  Bureau 

of,  320. 
Ames,  Oakes,  123,  124,  125, 

126. 
Amnesty  to  Jefferson   Davis, 

Elaine's    victory    over    the 

majority,  135-138. 
Arbitration    of     international 

disputes,     Elaine's     policy, 

244,  278. 

Arthur,  Chester  A.,  succeeds 
to  the  presidency,  247 ;  re 
verses  Elaine's  policy,  250- 
256  ;  in  the  canvass  of  1884. 
264,  275. 

Augusta,  Maine,  residence  of 
Mr.  Elaine,  24,  35,  47,  107, 
276,  290. 

Baker,  Joseph,  partner  of 
Elaine  as  editor  and  pub 
lisher,  34,  35. 

Baltimore,  U.  S.  cruiser,  sail 
ors  of,  attacked  in  Valpa 
raiso,  319. 

Banks,  Nathaniel  P.,  137. 

Banquet  to  Elaine  in  New 
York,  before  the  election  of 
1884,  288. 

Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  313,  322. 

Beale,  Harriet  (Elaine), 
daughter  of  James  G. 
Elaine,  264. 


Beck,  James  B.,  203,  204,  205. 

Benton's  "  Thirty  Years' 
View "  and  Elaine's 
"Twenty  Years  of  Con 
gress,"  compared,  261. 

Bering  Sea  seal  fishery, 
Elaine's  conduct  of  the 
question,  321-327,  359,  361. 

Elaine,  Emmons,  third  son  of 
James  G.,  26,  263,  342  ;  his 
death,  344. 

Elaine,  Ephraim,  great  grand 
father  of  James  G.,  6;  his 
services  during  the  Revolu 
tion,  7. 

Elaine,  Ephraim  Lyon,  father 
of  James  G.,  6,  8,  9,  10,  12, 
13,  14. 

Elaine,  Harriet  (Stan wood), 
wife  of  James  G.,  24,  25. 

Elaine,  James,  great  great 
grandfather  of  James  G.,  6. 

Elaine,  James,  grandfather  of 
James  G.,  8. 

Elaine,  James  Gillespie,  birth 
and  ancestry,  6-9 ;  educa 
tion,  12-18  ;  becomes  a 
teacher  in  Kentucky,  18; 
early  political  sagacity,  21 ; 
marriage,  24;  teacher  in 
Philadelphia,  27 ;  removal 
to  Maine,  35  ;  his  charac 
teristics  as  an  editor,  36,  41, 
42 ;  theological  criticisms, 
37 ;  becomes  State  printer, 
43  ;  first  entry  into  politics, 
44;  editor  of  the  Portland 
"  Advertiser,"  45  ;  investi 
gates  the  Maine  state  prison, 
46;  elected  to  the  Maine 


370 


INDEX 


legislature,  47 ;  Speaker  of 
the  Maine  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  48 ;  chairman  of 
the  Republican  State  Com 
mittee  and  political  leader 
of  Maine,  49;  attends  the 
Chicago  convention  of  1860, 
53 ;  resumes  temporarily  the 
editorship  of  the  "  Kennebec 
Journal,"  53  ;  political  cam 
paign  of  1860,  53  ;  services 
during  the  civil  war,  54 ; 
manages  the  successful  po 
litical  canvass  in  Maine, 
1862,  57 ;  nominated  for 
Congress,  58;  elected,  59; 
withstands  Thaddeus  Ste 
vens,  62,  63;  encounter 
with  Conkling,  66-72;  his 
part  in  the  Reconstruction 
legislation,  72,  74,  80,  82,  83, 
84 ;  his  later  views  on  negro 
suffrage,  77 ;  attitude  and 
votes  on  the  impeachment 
of  the  President,  86-90; 
first  European  tour,  91 ;  op 
poses  the  greenback  move 
ment,  95-97 ;  advocates 
economy  in  military  ex 
penditure,  98 ;  interprets 
the  election  of  General 
Grant,  99;  elected  Speaker 
of  the  national  House  of 
Representatives,  105  ;  buys 
a  house  in  Washington,  107  ; 
his  qualities  as  Speaker,  and 
incidents  of  his  service,  109- 
122;  the  first  Union  Paci 
fic  Railroad  charges,  122  ; 
Credit  Mobilier,  123;  the 
"salary  grab,"  126;  de 
feated  for  the  speakership, 
131  ;  overcomes  the  demo 
cratic  majority,  132 ;  the 
Jefferson  Davis  amnesty  in 
cident,  135-142;  Little  Rock 
and  Forth  Smith  Railroad, 


and  the  "Mulligan  letters," 
144-176 ;  the  pre-convention 
canvass  of  1876,  177-186; 
sunstroke  on  the  eve  of  the 
convention,  183 ;  appointed 
senator  from  Maine,  187 ; 
elected  unanimously  by  the 
legislature,  188  ;  his  career 
in  the  Senate,  183-215  ;  the 
"count-out"  in  Maine,  218- 
223;  the  canvass  of  1880, 
223-232  ;  his  analysis  of  the 
political  situation,  233  ;  ac 
cepts  the  State  portfolio, 
235  ;  relations  with  General 
Garfield,  237, 238,  239;  after 
the  assassination,  240 ;  char 
acteristics  as  Secretary  of 
State,  241 ;  his  conception 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine, 
243 ;  his  policy  and  career 
as  Secretary  of  State,  244- 
250  ;  resigns  from  the  Cab 
inet,  247 ;  his  policy  re 
versed,  250-256 ;  his  eulogy 
upon  Garfield,  256 ;  writes 
"Twenty  Years  of  Con 
gress,"  258-262;  the  can 
vass  of  1884,  264-295  ;  nom 
inated  for  the  presidency, 
276 ;  letter  of  acceptance, 
278  ;  the  "  Mugwump  "  op 
position,  279 ;  campaigning 
tour  of  the  West,  286  ;  the 
election  results  in  defeat, 
290;  causes  of  the  defeat, 
293  ;  second  European  tour, 
300  ;  the  "  Paris  message," 
302  :  declines  to  be  a  candi 
date  in  1888,  303-308 ;  ac 
cepts  portfolio  of  State  in 
Harrison's  cabinet,  311, 312  ; 
his  conduct  of  the  depart 
ment,  313-340 ;  changed  re 
lations  with  the  President, 
334-342  ;  death  of  Walker 
and  Mrs.  Coppinger,  337 ; 


INDEX 


371 


failure  of  his  health,  338 ; 
his  course  in  the  canvass  of 
1892,  339-344  ;  his  resigna 
tion,  341 ;  last  public  speech, 
345;  his  death,  347  ;  funeral, 
348  ;  estimate  of  his  charac 
ter  and  services,  349-366. 
Personal  traits  :  his  physical 
appearance,  2,  109,  352  ;  his 
personal  habits,  350;  his 
domestic  disposition,  25,  26, 
107,  263  ;  qualities  as  a  host, 
107 ;  religious  associations 
and  convictions,  13,  351. 
As  a  public  man  :  his  popu 
larity,  51 ;  among  the  Irish, 
285 ;  on  his  second  Euro 
pean  tour,  300  ;  among1  peo 
ple  of  all  parties,  353 ;  his 
personal  "  magnetism  "  first 
signalized  by  Thaddeus  Ste 
vens,  64  ;  its  comprehensive 
field,  353 ;  his  conciliatory 
disposition,  52,  261 ;  charges 
against  his  character,  3, 121- 
123,  144-176,  188,  251,  280. 
As  a  statesman :  his  political 
leadership,  1,  49,  107,  132, 
353,  354,  363;  political 
methods,  50 ;  effectiveness 
as  a  speaker,  354  ;  fairness 
in  debate,  102  ;  his  command 
of  parliamentary  strategy, 
132,  134 ;  his  consistency, 
355  ;  his  place  in  history,  1 , 
349-366. 

Elaine,  James  G.,  Jr.,  264. 

Elaine,  Jane  (Hoge),  8. 

Elaine,  Margaret  (Lyon), 
grandmother  of  James  G.,  8. 

Elaine,  Marie  Louise  (Gilles- 
pie),  mother  of  James  G.,  6, 
9 ;  her  religious  and  personal 
character,  10. 

Elaine,  Rebecca  (Galbraith), 
great  grandmother  of  James 
G.,7. 


Elaine,  Stanwood,  eldest  child 
of  James  G.,  died  in  infancy, 
26. 

Elaine,  Walker,  son  of  James 
G.,  26  ;  appointed  Assistant 
Secretary  of  State  and  Com 
missioner  to  Chile  and  Peru, 
248  ;  the  mission  discredited 
by  President  Arthur,  254  ; 
appointed  counsel  for  dis 
tribution  of  the  Geneva 
Award,  263  ;  appointed  So 
licitor  of  the  Department  of 
State,  335  ;  his  death,  337. 

Blair,  Henry  W.,  230. 

"Boss,"  the  political,  as  dis 
tinguished  from  a  real 
leader,  50. 

Bristow,  Benjamin  H.,  178, 
187,  226. 

Brownsville,  West,  Pennsyl 
vania,  birthplace  of  James 
G.  Elaine,  6,  10. 

Bureau  of  American  Repub 
lics,  320. 

Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  proposes 
payment  of  five-twenty 
bonds  with  greebacks,  94 ; 
encounters  with  Elaine,  112— 
120 ;  effect  of  his  candi 
dacy  in  1884,  284,  285,  292, 
294. 

Caldwell,  Josiah,  147, 154, 155, 
156,  157,  159,  160,  170. 

California  delegation  journeys 
to  Augusta  to  visit  Elaine, 
276. 

Cameron,  J.  Donald,  225. 

Carlisle,  John  G.,  112. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  301,  308, 
309. 

Centennial  Exhibition  at  Phil 
adelphia,  143. 

Chamberlain,  Daniel  H.,  193. 

Chamberlain,  Joshua  L.,  222, 
223. 


372 


INDEX 


Chicago  Convention  of  1880, 
227  ;  of  1884,  274. 

Chile,  revolution  in,  and 
.Elaine's  diplomatic  corre 
spondence,  318. 

Chinese  immigration,  Elaine's 
views  on,  211,  232. 

Cincinnati  Convention  of  1876, 
183. 

Civil  Service  Reform,  Blaine's 
views  on,  278. 

Clay,  Henry,  young  Blaine's 
reference  to,  19,  21  ;  as 
Speaker,  110,  111. 

Clayton  -  Bulwer  treaty,  the, 
Blaine's  effort  to  abrogate 
or  modify,  245,  252,  359. 

Cleveland, "  Grover,  280,  284, 
286  ;  elected  Presidential ; 
his  message  on  the  tariff, 
301 ;  views  on  the  question 
of  Samoa,  314  ;  invites  the 
republics  to  a  pan- American 
conference,  315  ;  sends  rev 
enue  cutters  to  Bering  Sea, 
323. 

Coburn,  Abner,  59. 

Colfax,  Schuyler,  65,  84,  85, 
105,  106. 

Commerce,  foreign.  See  Pan- 
American  Congress ;  Spanish 
America;  Shipping,  Ameri 
can. 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  encounter 
with  Elaine,  66-72  ;  candi 
date  for  the  Republican 
nomination  in  1876, 177,  179, 
186  ;  his  course  in  the  case 
of  Governor  Kellogg,  193; 
in  the  canvass  of  1880,  224, 
225  ;  his  agency  in  the  de 
feat  of  Elaine,  229,  230; 
Blaine's  treatment  of  him  in 
"  Twenty  Years  of  Con 
gress/  '  262  ;  his  course  in 
the  canvass  of  1884,  284, 
295. 


Consistency  of  Blaine  in  pol 
itics,  355. 

Constitution,  Blaine's  part  in 
framing  the  fourteenth 
amendment,  75. 

Cony,  Samuel,  59,  60. 

Coppinger,  Alice  (Blaine), 
daughter  of  James  G.  Blaine, 
26,  263  ;  her  death,  337. 

"  Count-out,"  in  Maine,  Blaine's 
management  thwarts  the 
scheme,  218. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.,  125,  143, 182. 

Crawford,  T.  C.,  incident  men 
tioned  by,  309. 

Credit  Mobilier,  the  charges 
against  Blaine,  123  ;  his  ex 
oneration,  125. 

Cuba,  101. 

Cumberland  road,  11,  12. 

Curtis,  Justice  Benjamin  R., 
his  argument  on  the  im 
peachment  of  the  President, 
90. 

Damrosch.  Margaret  (Blaine), 
daughter  of  James  G.  Blaine, 
264. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  amnesty  to, 
Blaine's  action  concerning, 
135-142. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  105,  122, 
195. 

Dodge,  Mary  Abby  ("Gail 
Hamilton  "),  her  biography 
of  Blaine  cited,  10,  21,  22, 
233,  260,  331 ;  long  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Blaine  household, 
264  ;  accompanies  the  fam 
ily  on  the  European  tour, 
300. 

Dorr,  John,  30,  35. 

Doubtful  states  in  the  elec 
tion  of  1884,  291. 

Dramatic  events  and  contrasts 
in  the  life  of  Elaine,  2,  3,  66, 
122,  169,  327,  341. 


INDEX 


373 


Editors  of  great  newspapers, 

their  training1  and  influence, 

81. 
Edmunds,  George  F.,  226 ;  in 

the   canvass   of   1884,   265, 

275,  276. 

Egan,  Patrick,  318. 
Electoral     commission,     177 ; 

Blaine's    opposition    to    the 

plan,  188. 
Elkins,  Stephen  B.,  240  (note), 

266,  269,  284,  287,  340. 
Emancipation  urged  by  Elaine, 

55. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  193,  242. 
Ewing,  Thomas,  12. 
"Expansion,"  national,  Blaine's 

significant  speech   in   1868, 

101 ;  his  agency  in  making 

extra-continental  expansion 

possible,  360-366. 
Export     duties,     position     of 

Blaine,  61. 

Financial  questions,  Blaine's 
attitude  on,  63,  92, 196,  216, 
217, 357.  See  also  Greenback 
Movement,  Silver  Question. 

Fisher,  Warren,  Jr.,  149,  154, 
155,  156,  157,  158,  160,  162, 
163,  164,  165. 

Fisheries  arbitration  under  the 
treaty  of  Washington,  201. 

Five-twenty  bonds,  proposed 
payment  of,  with  green 
backs,  93. 

"Force-bill,"  Blaine's  action 
as  Speaker,  117. 

Fourteenth  amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  75-77,  80,  81, 
83. 

Frelinghuysen,  Frederick  T., 
250,  252. 

Fremont  campaign  in  1856, 
Blaine's  part  in,  44. 

Frye,  William  P.,  181,  330. 

Fuller,  Melville  W.,  42. 


"  Gail  Hamilton."  See  Dodge, 
Mary  Abby. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  64,  77,  81 
(note),  118,  119,  126  (note), 
203,  212  ;  nominated  for  the 
presidency,  228,  230;  his 
friendship  with  Blaine,  231 ; 
elected,  and  offers  the  port 
folio  of  State  to  Blaine,  232  ; 
his  relations  with  the  Secre 
tary,  237,  238;  is  assassi 
nated,  239 ;  Blaine's  eulogy, 
256. 

Gold,  Thaddeus  Stevens's  bill 
defeated  by  Blaine,  63. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  Blaine's  in 
terpretation  of  his  election 
as  President,  99 ;  close  of 
his  second  term,  177 ;  his 
southern  policy  reversed, 
191 ;  the  third  term  move 
ment  in  1880,  225  ;  his  rela 
tions  with  Blaine  in  1881, 
266  ;  in  1884,  287. 

Greeley,  Horace,  123. 

Greenback  movement,  93;  in 
Maine,  216. 

Hale,  Eugene,  181,  329. 

Halstead,  Murat,  183,  294 
(note). 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  304,  308  ; 
nominated  for  the  presi 
dency,  309 ;  offers  Blaine 
the  portfolio  of  State,  311 ; 
his  relations  with  the  Sec 
retary,  334-342 ;  accepts 
Blaine's  resignation,  341  ; 
friendly  relations  restored, 
346 ;  his  proclamation  of 
Blaine's  death,  347. 

Hartranft,  John  F.,  177. 

Hawaii,  annexation  of,  101, 
359. 

Hawley,  Joseph  R.,  275,  276, 
304. 

Hay,  John,  246. 


374 


INDEX 


Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  177, 
185 ;  nominated  for  the 
presidency,  186 ;  declared 
elected,  191  ;  reverses 
Grant's  southern  policy, 
191,  194  ;  veto  of  the  silver 
bill,  196. 

Health,  Elaine's  anxiety  about 
his,  297. 

Hoar,  George  F.,  his  opinion 
on  the  "  Mulligan  letters  " 
charges,  173 ;  the  statue  of 
Governor  King,  195. 

Holman,  William  S.,  152,  153. 

Howe,  Timothy  0.,  200. 

Impeachment  of  President 
Johnson,  73,  85-91. 

"Imperialism,"  Elaine's  atti 
tude,  359. 

International  American  Con 
ference.  See  Pan-American 
Congress. 

Intimidation  of  voters  in  the 
South  ;  Elaine  ridicules  the 
fear,  208. 

Jewell,  Marshall,  177,  226. 
Johnson,  Andrew,  72,  73,  85, 

93. 

Jones,  John  P.,  229,  230. 
Julian,  George  W.,  152,  153. 

Kansas  and  Nebraska,  38, 
39. 

Kelley,  William  D.,  93. 

Kellogg,  William  P.,  132  ;  his 
claim  to  a  seat  in  the  Senate, 
192. 

"  Kennebec  Journal,"  30,  34 ; 
Elaine  becomes  editor,  35  ; 
resumes  editorship  tempo 
rarily,  in  18f>0,  53. 

Kerr,  Michael  C.,  131,  172. 

King,  William,  statue  of, 
Elaine's  speech  in  the  Sen 
ate,  195. 


Knott,  J.  Proctor,  170,  171. 
"  Know-Nothing  "  movement, 
39. 

Latin- Am  erica.  See  Pan- 
American  ;  Spanish  Amer 
ica. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  53,  54,  57, 
58. 

Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
Railroad,  Elaine's  connec 
tion  with  the,  145-176;  his 
tory  of  the  enterprise,  150 ; 
Elaine's  contract  with  Fish 
er,  155. 

Logan,  John  A.,  153,  225,  275. 

Louisiana  question,  the,  in 
Congress;  Elaine  defeats  the 
Democratic  majority,  132; 
the  case  of  Governor  Kel 
logg,  192. 

McKinley  tariff  act.  See  Re 
ciprocity. 

McVeagh,  Wayne,  238. 

Maine,  Elaine  removes  to,  35 ; 
the  ' '  f  usion  "  political  move 
ment  in  1854,  40;  state 
prison  management  investi 
gated  by  Elaine,  46  ;  defalca 
tion  of  the  state  treasurer, 
47 ;  political  canvasses  con 
ducted  by  Elaine,  50;  im 
portance  of  its  state  elec 
tions,  57 ;  in  1874,  128 ; 
separation  from  Massachu 
setts  discussed  by  Elaine, 
195 ;  the  greenback  move 
ment,  216 ;  the  "count-out," 
218  ;  gives  its  electoral  vote 
to  Garneld,  231. 

Massachusetts,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  Elaine,  196,  275,  276; 
headquarters  of  the  "  Mug 
wump  "  movement,  280. 

Matthews,  Stanley,  196. 

Medill,  Joseph,  183. 


INDEX 


375 


Minneapolis  convention  of 
1892,  342. 

Missouri  compromise,  39. 

Monroe  doctrine,  Elaine's  con 
ception  of  the  duties  and 
opportunities  it  imposes,  243, 
364. 

Morrill,  Anson  P.,  41,  47. 

Morrill,  Justin  S.,  91. 

Morrill,  Lot  M.,  53,  187. 

Morton,  Levi  P.,  309. 

Morton,  Oliver  P.,  177,  178, 
179,  226. 

"Mugwump"  movement,  279; 
the  leaders  and  their  ob 
jects,  282  ;  agency  of,  in 
Elaine's  defeat,  293. 

Mulligan,  James,  149, 163, 164, 
165,  166. 

"Mulligan  Letters,"  see  Little 
Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Rail 
road  ;  origin  of,  149  ;  sum 
mary  of  and  extracts  from, 
153-163;  Elaine  obtains  pos 
session  of  them,  167;  reads 
them  to  the  House,  167  ;  the 
charges  based  on  them  re 
vived  in  1884,  281. 

National  banks  and  usury  laws, 
62. 

Negro  suffrage,  Elaine's  posi 
tion  on,  75  ;  "  symposium  " 
in  the  "  North  American 
Review,"  77,  209;  signifi 
cance  of  the  elections  in 
1866,  80  ;  Elaine's  interpre 
tation  of  Grant's  election, 
100;  speeches  in  the  Sen 
ate,  206;  his  consistency, 
355. 

New  England,  its  meagre  sup 
port  of  Elaine,  185,  228,  275, 
276. 

Newspapers,  country,  their  in 
fluence  half  a  century  ago, 
31. 


New  York  election  returns  in 
1884,  290,  291,  294. 

"  North  American  Review," 
"  symposium  "  on  negro  suf 
frage,  77,  209. 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  in 
"Mulligan  Letters,"  158, 
160,  161. 

Panama  Canal,  245. 

Pan-American  Congress,  pro 
posed  by  Elaine,  247  ;  the 
invitations  sent,  248 ;  Elaine's 
summary  of  its  purposes, 
249 ;  the  invitations  with 
drawn,  252  ;  a  conference 
called  in  1888,  315  ;  Elaine 
opens  it  and  presides,  315  ; 
its  objects,  315  ;  conclusions, 
316  ;  results,  320 ;  report  on 
reciprocal  trade,  328. 

"  Paris  Message,"  Elaine's,  on 
the  tariff,  302,  356. 

Pauncefote,  Sir  Julian  (Lord 
Pauncefote),  323. 

Pendleton,  George  H.,  94. 

Peters,  John  A.,  114. 

Phelps,  William  Walter,  265, 
306  (note),  308,  309. 

"  Plumed  Knight,"  term  ap 
plied  to  Elaine,  277. 

Political  campaigning,  Elaine's 
tours,  186,  218,  220,  231, 
286,  310. 

"  Political  Discussions,"  by 
Elaine,  56,  134,  296. 

Portland  "Advertiser,"  Elaine 
becomes  editor,  45. 

Presidential  candidate,  Elaine 
already  suggested,  in  1875, 
139,  143;  the  canvass  of 
1876,  177-186  ;  the  canvass 
of  1880,  224-232  ;  the  can 
vass  of  1884,  264-295;  de 
clines  to  be  a  candidate  in 
1888,  303-308 ;  declines 
again  in  1892,  339. 


376 


INDEX 


Protective  policy.  See  Tar 
iff. 

Randall,  Samuel  J.,  118,  135, 

136,  137,  138. 
Reciprocity  in  the  tariff  act  of 

1890,  Elaine's  agency,  327  ; 

his  original  plan,   329 ;    his 

vigorous   promotion   of   the 

movement,   330;    results  of 

reciprocity,  331. 
Reconstruction,  Blaine's  part 

in,  72,  74,  75, 80,  82,  83,  84  ; 

act  passed  over  the  veto  of 

the  President,  84. 
Reed,  Thomas  B.,  112. 
Reid,  Whitelaw,  265,  305,  307 

(note),  345. 
Republican   party,    formation 

of,  38-41 ;  component  parts 

in  Maine,  41. 

"  Rum,  Romanism,  and  Rebel 
lion,"  289,  294. 

St.  John,  John  P.,  294. 

"  Salary  grab,"  Blaine's  action 
on  the,  126,  127. 

Salisbury,  Marquis  of,  300, 
323,  324,  325. 

Samoan  question,  the  situation 
and  Blaine's  action,  314. 

Schenck,  Robert  C.,  64,  77. 

Schurz,  Carl,  173. 

Scott,  Thomas  A.,  146,  147. 

Secretary  of  State,  Blaine,  in 
Garfield's  cabinet,  235-240 ; 
in  Arthur's,  247-250;  in 
Harrison's,  311-341 ;  his  in 
fluence  as,  363. 

Senate,  importance  of  seniority 
in,  212,  363. 

Severance,  Luther,  30,  33,  34. 

Seward,  William  H.,  53. 

Sherman,  General  William  T., 
Blaine's  remarkable  letter 
to,  in  1884,  271 ;  Sherman's 
reply,  272 ;  suggested  in 


convention  as  candidate  for 
the  presidency,  273. 

Sherman,  John,  85,  226,  227, 
275,  308. 

Sherman,  Thomas  H.,  Secre 
tary  of  Mr.  Blaine,  109,  180, 
181,  260. 

Shipping,  American,  Blaine's 
advocacy  of  its  claims,  203- 
206,  358. 

Silver  question,  Blaine's  course 
on  the  act  of  1878, 196,  279, 
357. 

Slavery  question,  38,  355. 

Smalley,  George  W.,  300,  302. 

Smart,  Ephraim  K.,  53. 

Smith,  Charles  Emory,  229, 
230,  265, 303. 

Southern  questions.  See  Am 
nesty  ;  Emancipation ;  Negro 
Suffrage  ;  Reconstruction ; 
Slavery. 

Spanish  America,  trade  with, 
Blaine's  activity  to  promote, 
203,  244,  320, 327  ;  wars  and 
arbitration,  see  Pan-Ameri 
can  Congress ;  Blaine's  pol 
icy  and  conduct,  244,  278  ; 
difficulties  during  Harrison's 
administration,  317-320. 

Speaker,  Blaine  as,  109. 

Speakership,  the,  in  American 
and  other  assemblies,  111. 

Spencer  Rifle  Company, 
Blaine's  connection  with, 
149,  150. 

Stanwood,  Eben  C.,  35,  149. 

Stan  wood,  family  name  of  Mrs. 
James  &.  Blaine,  24  ;  name 
of  his  cottage  at  Bar  Harbor, 
299. 

Stanwood,  Jacob,  35, 149,  164. 

Stevens,  John  L.,  partner  and 
political  associate  of  Blaine, 
36,  49,  53. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  opposed  by 
Blaine  on  the  gold  bill,  62, 


INDEX 


377 


63,  64;  his  position  on  re 
construction,  73,  82,  83, 355  ; 
on  impeachment  of  the 
President,  87 ;  on  payment 
of  the  bonded  debt,  95. 

Tariff,  Elaine's  opinions  and 
actions  on  the,  121, 130,  278, 
301,  356. 

Third  term  for  President 
Grant,  143,  225. 

Trescott,  William  H.,  commis 
sioner  to  Chile  and  Peru, 
248 ;  his  mission  discred 
ited  by  President  Arthur, 
254. 

"  Twenty  Years  of  Congress," 
88 ;  preparation  of  the  work, 
258,  296. 


Union  Pacific  Railroad,  first 
accusation  against  Blaine  in 
connection  with,  122 ;  the 
Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith 
bonds,  see  Little  Rock  and 
Fort  Smith  Railroad. 

War  debts  of  loyal  states, 
Blaine  advocates  assump 
tion  of,  61,  65. 

Washburn,  Israel,  Jr.,  54. 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  226. 

Washington  College,  14,  299. 

Washington,  Pennsylvania, 
boyhood  home  of  Blaine,  14, 

Western  Military  Institute,  19. 

Whiskey  frauds,  151. 

Windom,  William,  226. 

Wood,  Fernando,  113,  133. 


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